Resonance
by Absolutely Average
Summary: "I want to be a Huntsman, I want to be a hero that is able to save everyone. Even if no one else helps me, I will make it to Beacon and nothing is going to stop me from reaching my dream." Little did Jaune know that he would have help on his road to Beacon and he would become the hero he always dreamed of while making friendships that would last a lifetime on the way there.
1. Prologue: The Forge

Rin had had a theory. It had been crazy, heretical, and absolutely brilliant all at the same time.

"What if everything the magical community has been doing for the last two millennia has been wrong?" she had said. "Magecraft has been weakening for over one thousand years. Not only the craft, but the abilities of magi themselves have been slowly but surely deteriorating. In any magical family, circuits have been on the general decline from generation to generation in both quality and quantity. The most common theory, which states that the increase in human population has led to a division of the human spirit, doesn't make sense. The strength of a mage born in the eighteen-hundreds and one born a thousand years before is absolutely incomparable even though the populations were still in an analogous state. While the amount of mystery may have decreased that should have only weakened the individual spells related to the mystery in question, but it's not only the spells that have decreased in power but their practitioners as well. The theory that natural selection or more specifically the lack thereof is the reason for humanity's stagnation can also be disproven. Families of magi have always used their craft whether it be potions or spell to make sure that their children would live past infancy with no reduction in magical potential observed in these children or even their offspring. Additionally, _how_ did Alaya grow to the size it currently is? How would our population increase lead to a weakened Alaya, and why would Alaya not grow at a similar rate? Our theories make no sense….so what if it is not the decrease in mystery or the increase in human population that has caused the change in magecraft? What if it's the reaction we made to the supposed 'change' in the first place?"

"Think of the Age of Gods," she had continued. "The gods and their pantheons are dead and gone. They faded because humans stopped believing in them and they slowly lost their power and authority and were reduced to nothing. Belief. That is what led to the gods' downfall, simple human belief. The Greeks believed that magic resided in all things and they produced the highest number of heroic spirits of any era. What if our supposed cure, hiding away both ourselves and our craft from the rest of the world, is actually the true disease? We both fought in the Grail War, Gilgamesh himself, the oldest of all Heroic Spirits, said that humanity should have grown far beyond what it is in the present day. If you asked most individuals who the de facto witch or wizard is from any era the answer they would give would be Merlin. Merlin who was born at the end of the Age of Gods. Merlin, who was born just before the majority of us went into hiding. Is our lack of growth due to a lack of belief? Are mysteries becoming less and less possible because people believe them to be impossible and in doing so are limiting the potential of both their souls and that of Alaya? If we were to reintroduce ourselves into society, would we be able to regain our former strength, would our magical potential come back?"

She had thought of this, ironically enough, because of me. Magical degradation, the reduction in mystery, the elimination of the True Magics, the cause of each of these is supposed to be common knowledge to any magically raised child and it is, or at least it is for any properly educated mage's child.

My education in magecraft had been poorly done, barely covered most of the basics, and would have likely killed or crippled anyone else. Whenever I had to ask about the reduction in magic, Rin gave me the same answers she had received. Whenever I asked why these things happened she gave the same answers she had gotten along with the most prominent theories available. I then disproved all of said theories. With Unlimited Blade Works, I had a copy of every magical or mundane weapon I had ever seen and through them we had records of the practices of magecraft from the dawn of human history to today. I was able to trace wands, staffs, and other foci and say exactly how they had been used and the strength of their users as well as the spells they had produced. I was able to accurately state when the general decline in the magical community had occurred based on the decrease in strength of the average mage, something that happened over a century after the Clock Tower's accepted date.

Rin was shocked, and said she would look into it and get back to me with whatever information she found. In the span of less than a day she had made the aforementioned theory that questioned the very foundation of her society's beliefs and had called upon two of her colleagues, her rival, Luviagelita Edelfelt, and another former participant in the Grail Wars, Waver Velvet to verify. Geis were signed, details vehemently discussed between Rin and Luvia, the original Fragarach used to verify that neither yet knew anything about the reduction beyond what was common and that nothing said between us would reach another's ears. The discussion itself was naturally held in our own apartment complex that was warded against any outside observation or interference by several of my Noble Phantasms. Then she shared with them her thoughts.

"Ludicrous," Waver stated. "Insane," Luvia corrected. She acknowledged their statements, right before she showed them her proof. We explained the nature of my abilities and projected staffs, staves, mystic codes, and Noble Phantasms and I was even able to say that everything I said was true without violating the geis. After the shock of being next to someone who was so distorted wore off, which occurred nearly instantaneously for Waver while Luvia had required a minute, another debate began. I wasn't able to grasp the full significance of this, of such a clear and deliberate act of misinformation. I had not been exposed to the scheming and often justified paranoia that resided in the Clock Tower's culture long enough to understand what they did, that someone or something had to be behind the cover up with their end goal most likely being the crippling of humanity.

The Clock Tower's first records that asserted the benefits of the concealment of mystery was made by a Botany mage who had been sent to study a series of African tribes and supposedly found proof of the descent in the secluded tribes circuit count and quality. Over the next several decades other mages came forward with similar evidence, having gone to other areas withdrawn from mankind. Each and every one of them had been sent on research trips by the Clock Tower from different department heads and some even from the other branches of the Mage's Association: Atlas and the Sea of Estray. This continued for some time until the amount of evidence supporting the benefits of concealment had seemed too much to ignore and the withdrawal of magi from regular society began.

Luvia was the first one to come to the most probable conclusion and once she did we wondered how no one could have seen it before. "The Director," she had put forth. "He…She…It has been the head of the Mage's Association for literally millennia. Most believe that he is something more than human and they're probably the only individual who would be capable of influencing this many different departments within such a vast time frame."

I think that that was when it became real, that moment when we had a definite target, a goal that we could strive for. The first step was obvious. We had to find out the species of, and then potentially kill, the Director. That is where I came in. With my reality marble I most likely had a weapon capable of killing anything whether it be a god or a demon, a man or a monster. The problem was determining what the Director was to begin with. He had been alive long before Crimson Moon had created the True Ancestors, let alone the Dead Apostles and was subsequently unlikely to be among their ranks. All reports that mentioned his appearance placed him as Middle Eastern. In the event that that wasn't a red herring perhaps his species originated there. He likely wasn't a Djinn, the Clock Tower had been warded very heavily by Zelretch himself against all of their kind after the incident that spawned Gazamy the Wraith. An elemental was similarly unlikely as they were not known for having any interest at all in human affairs. A Primordial Demon was the next suggestion, as they would be capable of a millennial long schemes such as this. I traced Uriel, the angel-sword that guarded from all directions and watched over Eden's gates. If a demon of such strength resided anywhere within 33 kilometers the light that the celestial blade produced would condense slightly as it prepared for battle. It did so but with an intensity that had only occurred once before in the weapon's history at the beginning of its guard. The light gathered along the edge of the blade at such a density that it was as if the sun had wrapped itself around the blade something that only occurred in the presence of its natural adversary. I had dispelled it instantly reeling at the knowledge of who our foe was.

Good God, we were idiots. How could no one in two-thousand years have stopped a moment and thought 'Hey, is it weird that the head of our organization is rarely seen, doesn't seem to age, and has been alive since at least the creation of the modern calendar?' There must have been something, a conceptual defense or inherent Noble Phantasm that prevented others from contemplating his strange existence, something that perhaps only we alone were able to do because of the Noble Phantasms around our home protecting us from its influence.

It all came back to belief. Belief was what gave the gods strength and humans moving away from their worship is what led to their downfall. I said this before but how could I not have realized its implications then because that wasn't true of all gods, was it? There were a couple pantheons whose number of believers had only grown over the millennia, and one in particular whose second most well-known member was infamous for manipulating humanity, one that many would consider a deity of multiple religions with half the world believing in his existence. Masking himself as the head of the Mage's Association to limit humanity's growth? The devil in plain sight.

When I finally spoke into the silence that occurred after Uriel's dispersion it was to explain what we were up against, and the weapons I thought best suited to deal with it. Luvia and Waver took the whole 'fighting against Lucifer' thing remarkably well. When the discussion continued into the night I began to trace a few of the more likely contenders for the Director's elimination as the history of every blade that I had that had been in his presence told me he needed to die. Longinus, Vasavi Shakti, Enkidu, Gae Bolg, and Mistletoe were possibly the best contenders, all having slain gods and celestial beings before. After setting those five down I traced two more out of habit just to feel their familiar weight in my hands, and to admire their craftsmanship that had enthralled me so long ago during the Fifth Grail War. Waver asked me for their names and abilities, seeing two weapons that we had not discussed using. I had leaned forward and presented him with the blades and explained their ability to attract one another, how they gave a one-rank increase in physical and magical resistance to their wielder and always returned to their owner's hands. They were my favorites, if any one of my swords could be called that, something that is there when you need it and acts as both shield and sword, even though I had not thought them capable of helping us in our present endeavor. I even, with what may have almost been a small measure of pride, said how they had been able to take two of Heracles' lives in one of Archer's previous wars. This particular tidbit drew Rin's attention.

"Shirou, aren't those C rank? I thought it took at least an A rank weapon to kill Berserker?" "Yeah, but their rank and abilities increase with each copy of their counterpart that is in their vicinity so with three in existence they qualified as A rank." Then came a period of silence that had been produced solely by my own stupidity. The first person to speak afterwards, Lord El-Melloi, asked the rather obvious question going through the minds of everyone in the room that wasn't me: "What is the limit of how strong they can become?"

…How had I never asked myself that before? We moved the discussion from my apartment to Luvia's larger rooms upstairs and I started tracing. At three copies the swords gained a wing-like appearance. At eight their shape shifted to that of large spiked clubs. The next change didn't occur until fifty-four when each blade looked like a large teardrop. I had to stop afterwards, having spent nearly all of my prana. Rin wasn't letting that deter us however and after a not-so-quick mana transfer ritual, one which Luvia offered to assist in but Rin vehemently vetoed, I was back to tracing. Even so no difference occurred in any of the blades even after the hundredth pair was formed. Whenever it seemed that nothing else would occur I traced the one-hundred and eighth set with the last of my prana and everything changed.

Each blade drew its partner together and each of them combined to from a Taijitu with one-hundred and eight of the symbols in total. I somehow felt that there would be no more increases so we decided to experiment. We found that my magic and physical resistance had increased enormously and that things could be stored within each copy. We put a watch in and then withdrew it a minute later and found that its hands had not moved a second. It seemed to be a storage Noble Phantasm similar to the Gate of Babylon, something that preserved anything placed inside from Gaia's will. Remembering the vault's ability to act as a passage way between two points, I tried to will one to open another entranceway on the other side of the room. It did so immediately and when I crossed it I was able to do so without traversing any of the space in between. We had teleportation.

We found that it could only take us somewhere I had been before or where someone I knew currently was. There didn't seem to be any range as I was able to travel to Fuyuki as easily as I was to the kitchen on the lower floor. Not only that but since any object stored within one of them was resistant to the passage of time any of my projections that I stored within would not have to deal with Gaia's corrective influence until I brought them out. Waver and I performed a memory sharing ritual that added a hundred more Noble Phantasms to my repertoire from his encounters with Gilgamesh alone and I then took us into Unlimited Blade Works and launched the entirety of my armory into Kanshou and Bakuya. With this we had a chance.

I faced the Director by myself, alone in body but not in spirit. I had formed a contract with both Rin and Luvia beforehand to make sure that I would not be lacking in regards to Prana, as well as to unsure that they would be aware of my potential death. I used Helena's Nail to locate him, Ariadne's String to reach him in his localized workshop, Uriel to both verify his identity as well as distract him, the Chains of Heaven to bind him, the Lance of Destiny, the Arrow of Mischief, the Soaring Spear that Strikes with Death, the Dart of Indra, and the Scythe of Time to kill him and then used my personal vault to hit him with the remainder of my weapons that had a chance to harm him. Once Uriel verified that he was dead for now, I relaxed

Afterwards, we had to convey to the Queen our goal, convince her not to try to kill us or worse, explain why the top floor of the Clock Tower was destroyed, and then get the help of Atlas and the Sea of Estray to assist in the reintroduction of magi to modern society. It was at this point that Zelretch showed up and … didn't make everything worse. He explained the entirety of the situation, took Rin and Luvia on as his students, and managed to pacify the Clock Tower Lords. We were able to convince the new Director, one Lorelei Barthomeloi, of the validity of our plan who was then able to convince the Meluastella head who convinced the Toranbelio head of our plan. With them along with the Archibalds and Edelfelts on our side the rest of the Clock Tower swiftly fell into line with the other two branches of the Mage's Association following shortly after.

The effect that the Association's influence had on society was astounding. Its control of the media was unparalleled. It first subtly shifted general opinion to a more accepting mindset then gradually began to introduce us back into society. I became the Association's mascot, someone who could travel to any location that I had already been with a tool available for any situation. I arrived in countries before tsunamis could and calmed the waves with the swing of a trident. I prevented a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility that would have led to a meltdown. With my portals I could be anywhere. Mages became the first responders in relief efforts, evacuation attempts, you name it. Eventually, after years of effort, the separate societies had seamlessly intermingled.

With the dismantling of the Aylesbury ritual and elimination of a large amount of overly hostile Ancestors the moon became the first extraterrestrial location to be settled with Mars being the first planet to be terraformed. Now, almost one-hundred years later as I gazed out upon the seas of the formerly red planet I could not help but marvel at how far we'd come. My portals had allowed for travel from the Earth to the moon in seconds and were currently doing the same here. They were one of the primary reasons that humanity had reached this far and everyone has been preparing for my death for the last few decades. That was the purpose of the World Portal Network, a series of points spread throughout every Gaia claimed world that allowed for mass travel along real and hypothetical leylines that took hours instead of days or months. Humanity had advanced so much and I was the person credited for most of it, something that was orchestrated from the start.

I think Rin planned for my rise to fame. With my reality marble and portals being instrumental to integration and with my distorted mindset of absolute selflessness making it so that I became the lauded image of everything good that the magical community had to offer, my rise to fame was almost inevitable. There were incredibly few people in the world who did not know my name and face. I was a legend and almost certain to be remembered as one on my passing. Which is why there was only one thing left that I absolutely had to do, one that I couldn't return from for it to be a success.

I was over one-hundred and fifty. Rin, Luvia, and Sakura had seen just over a century when they passed, Sakura and Rin at the same time due to a soul link they shared that extended Sakura's life after Zouken's experiments. Luvia followed after them a year later, probably because she missed her rivals and best friends. My children had grown, most of them becoming like their individual mothers, thank God for small mercies. They were in their second century as well, with their children not too far behind them. I was a five times great grandfather. When all the descendants that one had numbered in the hundreds you knew that you had lived a long life. Each and every one of them had done great things in their lives, each one of them had a life of their own. They did not need me to guide them anymore and while I shortened travel time, I was confident that they would make sure humanity continued to excel after I left.

I steeled myself, took a breath, created a portal, and walked through. I didn't enter with any specific destination in mind, just entering the space that connected all of my copies of Kanshou and Bakuya, an endless space, a void with the only presence inside being my own and whatever I decided to store within it. Time didn't pass in here for anyone unless I urged it to and space was only determined by thought. Rin had hypothesized that this was a conceptual area that embodied the existence of 'Nothingness' the state of reality before time and space became definite laws and that that was why they bent so easily for me here. So if this was pre-existence, wouldn't that be infinitely close to the beginning of every world, a common starting point from which all things emerged? I certainly hoped so because as that was the only way this would work. I traced another portal, something I had never had to do inside this place as I could will them to open anywhere I had already been but once again I did not think of any specific destination while forging this gateway and I once more stepped through.

I stood upon a precipice/height/peak. I was in a land/space/area of abstracts/concepts/meaning. Before me was all things. I did not try to see/understand/grasp it for I knew it would do the same and with my inner world acting as a perfect record it was very likely I would see more than I could and never be able to forget it. I was at the edge of Akasha, the Root of Creation and I was going to use it solely for its location. As the Root of all worlds, connected to all of them and familiar to all of them, it was the only location that this ritual had a chance of succeeding in. I reached into the pouch I kept on my belt and drew forth prana saturated gems. Rin, Sakura and Luvia had worked for decades to get enough energy in these stones for one almost impossible task. I was going to use all of their hard work in a matter of moments but if it was successful than everything would be worth it. I began to chant.

"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg." The words were chosen as the catalyst in part for nostalgia's sake, partially so that in the event that my target heard them he would take notice, and lastly because they were the words inscribed upon the jewels to activate their mystery.

"The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulates. Shut (fill), shut (fill), shut (fill), shut (fill), shut (fill), simply shatter once filled." I felt something from behind me first, then from every conceivable direction as it seemed a hundred beings took notice. From them I felt surprise, curiosity, and the beginnings of unexpected hope.

"I announce. Your self is under me, my fate (doom) is in your sword. In accordance with the approach of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason then answer. Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead. You seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"

All the gems I had on my body shattered as I finished the chant with a shout of exclamation. Their fragments scattered around me and formed a prismatic spherical enclosure. Runes scrawled themselves over every inch of its surface. The markings acted as an amplifier as they increased the resonance of my soul a thousand times. This would only have a noticeable effect if I was close to an alternate version of myself whose soul bore enough of a resemblance to my own to be seen as the same being. Fortunately for me, I was infinitely close to every world and in every world that Shirou Emiya became a Counter Guardian that Zelretch had bothered to check that man was used to guarantee that nothing came back from the Root to endanger Alaya, meaning that they all were within reach of this spell. I felt a pulse of elation from every direction and a thousand silvery lights converged on my location, each of them a soul of one of my counterparts that had enslaved themselves to humanity's will. Each of them sworn to be a Counter Guardian, a fate that was eternal, excluding one escape clause. If the recipient became a Heroic Spirit then their soul would be elevated to divinity, beyond the reach of Alaya, and in doing so attain freedom. This was what I was attempting on a vastly magnified scale. As I felt all of their souls synchronize with my own, their memories join mine and our very beings become inseparable, every one of their bonds transferred to me as well. Now for the last step.

At what point in a Heroic Spirit's life did one ascend to the Throne? As far as I could determine from my tens of thousands of armaments so intrinsically linked to their wielders that they had ascended with them it occurred on the event of their final death whenever they passed from the world for the last time. I had to specify final death as some legends, Lazarus, Jesus, Sisyphus, and Baldur to name a few, just don't stay dead whenever they are killed and none of their items ascended on their first passing. It is only when a hero's soul passes from the planet's domain for the last time that their existence resonates with Gaia and Alaya, gathering strength from how much they had influenced the world above and below and raising their existence to near divinity. It was the separation that did it, that initiated the pseudo-apotheosis. That was why I was about to fake my death and try to fool the entire solar system and all of its inhabitants.

I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. Everyone that I had collaborated with in the making of this scheme had been dead for the better part of a century and no one was absolutely sure what would happen whenever I died. There were several theories on what would occur and their makers were about to wrongly feel vindicated. I reached out to each of my portals on the Earth, Moon and Mars and withdrew them back to me, closing them and simultaneously dispelling all of my projections, removing all of my remaining presence from my dimension and letting the entire world know of my supposed passing.

I waited for a few seconds for Alaya and Gaia to realize what had occurred. I didn't feel as if my existence were suddenly heavier or as if I could break mountains with my fists. There were no outward signs of a change and I may have worried that I had failed if I didn't have any other indicators to go by. Fortunately, in a sense, I now had a hundred intangible bonds that formerly tethered my alternate selves to the will of Alaya and as I felt all of them shatter I knew that the plan that we had worked on for so long was a success.

Everything had gone perfectly. Oh, how I savored that thought as the situation so rarely came up that I was able to have it. I had saved my other selves and payed back any debt I may have owed to my annoying alternate future self.

I no longer had any connection to my Earth and never could again as it would most likely reject me if I ever tried to return. The only place left I could maybe claim as my home was the Throne and with me residing there it was possible that I may even be summoned in alternate Grail Wars or other rituals, so anywhere I went would likely be a temporary settlement at best. Even so, just because there was no place for me didn't mean that I was just going to die. I turned inward to my reality marble and tens of thousands of new additions. "We have the entirety of the Root before us, and the capability to go anywhere," I thought to all of my more sentient occupants. "You have stood with me for thousands of years and served me well. Do any of you feel drawn to any of the worlds before us, somewhere you would like to go?" A dozen voices chimed in: the kaleidosticks Ruby, Sapphire, and Amethyst immediately falling into strife, Kalevipoeg's Bane, Oma and Kullervo all acquiescing to any world where they would be able to draw blood, Bridal Chest to anywhere she could observe friends, Uriel and Marquis to whatever world was chosen as long as they could serve me, and the final decision being made by two of my swords coming to an agreement with each other, something rather abnormal as neither seemed to get along despite their similar origins. Even so, each of their inner worlds felt drawn to one particular realm. "Two seems to be the highest vote," I said, tracing the fused kaleidosticks and thinking of my destination. I followed the connection that resonated with the black and white straight swords to that reality and felt myself moving faster and faster through a prismatic storm until-

*Floom!* Ah. I seem to have crashed. I stood up from the small crater in which I had found myself and dusted off my cloak and pants. My surroundings were still obscured by the debris my sudden impact had generated but even so I could feel the presence of an individual several meters in front of me, the person that the twin swords had been drawn to.

"Um…" began a male youth based on the tone of their voice and what outline I could make out "are you alright?!"


	2. Hero I

**Author's Note:** *Looks at story, 40+ favs, 70+ follows, 6 reviews….looks at half-written Chapter 1…settles down to type* Let's do this. First, reason for writing this now and then answering reviews:

Why I am writing this story now: I published the prologue on the day Volume 4 aired because I already have a large part of the plot worked out. I know how a lot of the relationships will develop, have definite plans for both Jaune and Ren's yet unseen semblances, and a general idea for how the main cast interaction will go once that comes along. My point is that I don't plan on shifting major elements in my story just to accommodate future volumes and while I may do so for some instances if I can find a way to seamlessly insert an element into the story I would not expect this with every new feature introduced and may not do so at all just to not set a precedent.

Tracing limitations: Yeah, Shirou is specifically stated to not be able to trace Divine Constructs but: in UBW Archer says he could trace Excalibur, in HF Shirou does trace Excalibur, in Fate/Extra Archer does so as well, in Prisma Illya Illya and Kuro trace Excalibur and Alt!Shirou traces Ig-Alima and Sul-sagana (which are also Divine Constructs). So the whole 'no tracing Divine Constructs' rule is sort of a rule until it would be super cool if it wasn't. Don't get me wrong, my inner fanboy goes nuts whenever it happens but the validity of the rule has always been nebulous at best. That being said, he still has limitations when it comes to certain objects of extraterrestrial origin and will never be able to even understand Ea. As for Shirou being able to trace something after seeing it in another person's memories, Waver's in this case, I think that he did pretty much the same thing with Saber in the Fate route when he traced Caliburn and I have seen it done several times in other fics so if I am misremembering then my bad.

The Director: All of my knowledge about him and a large part of the rest of the Nasuverse comes from the Type-Moon wiki. The Nasuverse has so many characters, mechanics, rules, and even more exceptions to those rules that it would be impossible for me to not rely on it for information. So, as far as I can say, yes, the Clock Tower is led by a 2000+ year old being who is said to be something more than human with little else known about him and I then took a few liberties to make him the world's predominant fallen angel. In the original script the Director was actually God since the Abrahamic religions are still very popular today and it would make sense from a Nasuverse mechanical standpoint for him to be around but I couldn't get his motivation straightened out. Inspiration struck when I realized that if God still existed then the Devil could too and the rest came naturally. I thought of using a member of the Hindu pantheon as it also has a high number of believers but I am much less knowledgeable about it and felt that I was more likely to offend people with my ignorance on the subject. It could be asked "if the Director was the Devil then where is God?" That has several potential answers: one would be God allowed for the Devil's plans to reach that point to make sure that humans attained a suitable level in both science and population before reintroducing magecraft, he could have been a really big fan of free-will for all of his creation, or any number of other reasons. Probably won't ever matter in the setting.

Shirou Emiya and not breaking the setting: I have given this a lot of thought and I think that I have a "!believable!" (not mocking, loved the review) reason for Shirou not absolutely breaking Remnant. It will probably be explained in-story in Chapter 3 but part of the prologue was to subtly mention the reason why Shirou isn't going to immediately try to, for example, establish half a dozen new kingdoms that I will elaborate on later. Shirou isn't going to go stomp Salem and all her associates and if a story of that nature is what you are looking for then I would suggest looking in the Naruto crossover section. I am not going to go with the oft used method of nerfing a character just so they fit in the setting especially since I established him as stronger than his past canon counterpart as that would just be lazy writing. I also do not plan to suddenly empower all other players so that they can casually shrug off a barrage of Noble Phantasms. One reason for not breaking the setting that may not be explained in-universe is that a lot of the main issues in RWBY such as the Maidens, Salem, and the Silver Eyed Warriors are things that only a select few even know are issues and Shirou is not likely to become one of them. Even though he does have a plethora of mystic arms most of them won't be useful for information gathering, he got really lucky with Uriel and Lucifer. If he were to say, take a look at Qrow's sword-scythe, then he would know the general information about the Maidens and possibly the Queen depending on what point they would meet in the timeline but Remnant is not a small world and coincidences like that don't happen often. A lot of the information Shirou already has from his own setting, Types, Gaia, Alaya, etc., will lead him to make a lot of false theories off of what he finds out about this setting, the broken moon, the Grimm avoiding conflicts with animals, and Dust. Even though in terms of raw attack he was the strongest person in his world that is largely because he is highly specialized for combat and because of that specialization is _still_ unable to perform a lot of the basic thaumaturgy that would make information gathering and reconnaissance a whole lot easier nor did he ever have to focus on that since he was working with an entire organization that could do that stuff for him. You could think of it like having the sharpest sword in the world, capable of casually separating electrons from their host atoms and piercing through any defense. Awesome. Now hack into this computer.

Fun fact: Kanshou and Bakuya only took on their final form, the yin-yang symbol (taijitu), whenever there were 108 pairs created meaning that there were 216 blades in all. 216=6*6*6 which I have heard may be the actual Number of the Beast as found in Revelations and in this case was used in Satan's downfall. Didn't realize the irony until I had already written it.

Resonance

I don't consider myself a very brave person. I'm scared of plenty of things: dying, failing to become a Huntsman, talking to that cute girl that sits next to me in Math, you know, the important stuff. Even so I want to be a Huntsman, I want to be a hero like my older sisters were before me. That was why, while on my five kilometer run along the inside of Anthem's walls, I found myself approaching the crater that had suddenly formed several feet to my left. I could have sworn that I had seen someone falling right before this cloud of dust sprouted up and if they were injured then I would need to run for help. So, as I approached the crater with thoughts of 'please don't be a Grimm' repeating themselves in my head, I called out with what I meant to be a confident and assuring voice.

"Um…" Great start, someone could be dying and I can't even get actual words to come out of my mouth. "Are you alright?!"

The dust began to settle and I started to get a decent view of the person that was at the middle of the crater. He was tall, red haired, maybe six-one or two and he looked to be in his twenties. He had black pants with some form of holster or armor on his left side and a white cloth belt around his waist. His upper attire consisted of a white cloak with an artistic design on the inside, a single red and black sleeve on his left arm and nothing else. All in all, he was quite strangely dressed by any normal person's standards…probably a Huntsman.

That brought a rather disturbing possibility to mind. It would take a lot of force to make a crater that large and something had to have hit him for him to have suddenly landed here like that.

"Were you fighting a Grimm? My parents are close by and they're the best Huntsman around, I can go get them to come help you if you need it," my voice came out a little higher than normal as I offered to do the only thing I could of any value, getting others to do what I couldn't since I would only be at best a hindrance and at worst a fatal distraction.

The stranger looked at me in apparent confusion for a moment and as he did so I had an even worse thought.

What if he wasn't engaging a Grimm but another Huntsman? Wasn't dad just talking about some new red-haired criminal that dressed in white that he had heard about in Vale last week? Granted, that was on another continent but I just told him who my parents were. What if he used me as a hostage? Mom would likely be afraid to do anything if I was in danger and even dad would hesitate for at least a moment which may be all the time that this guy needed.

I looked him over again. He didn't seem to have a weapon on him, maybe it had landed somewhere else, but I remembered how the bracelets Emerald used to wear could turn into giant claws so he could have a six foot sword in his pocket for all I knew. I had Jasper's old knife in my back case, if I used it then maybe I could stab his leg so he wouldn't be able to chase me. No, I was being stupid. If he could survive a fall that hard and appear fine then a knife with only my strength behind it probably wouldn't hurt him. I suddenly noticed how dry my throat was and tried not to gulp.

As I worried about the potential destruction of my home and how it would all be because I didn't know when to shut up he voiced his reply.

"No, just had a bit of a fall there. I seem to have lost my way. Would you be kind enough to tell me where I am Mr. …?"

"Arc," I replied, hoping that the weight that the name held would deter him from starting any trouble. Hopefully he would assume that I would be trained enough to offer a measure of resistance if he tried to take me. I forced my breath that had grown heavy from both my run and my internal panic to calm down to try to support this image and set my legs a little wider so that I could make a run for my house if I had to. "Jaune Arc. This is the town of Anthem. There aren't any other villages nearby so the best I can say is that we're a bit over halfway between Mistral and Vale on the Animan continent."

He seemed to ponder over these words for a moment before his eyes roved over me taking in my attire, position, and footing and seeming to gain more insight from my clothes than I thought possible.

"What were you doing to fall so hard earlier? You said you weren't fighting a Grimm. Were you fighting another Hunter?" Okay, maybe if I could convince him to leave me alone for a moment I could call my mom and dad. They could come either identify him or stop him and whoever he was fighting with from bringing it into Anthem, all I needed to do was to get him to leave me alone for a moment, all I needed was a brilliant plan…yeah, I've got nothing.

But maybe I didn't need to? At my second mention of the word Grimm that same expression of confusion passed over his face again. What could be confusing about the Grimm, they were the predominant species on Remnant. No one should be confused about what they were, that would be… I looked to the crater. I looked to the man who had landed in the crater. I looked to the half-a-foot deep several feet wide crater. I looked to the man who had formed said crater by landing in it, possibly on his head.

…A man hit the ground hard enough to cause _that_ , is confused and doesn't know where he is and I just realized that he is probably concussed?! Naturally, the next thing to do is assume that he is some criminal from another continent. He probably doesn't even know how he got here. I mean really, I read up on this after Layla put her shoes on the wrong feet and her dress on backward.

"Oh God, I'm sorry. You just had a fall, don't know where you are, and I am just being rude. Do you feel dizzy? Maybe a headache or something?" I babbled, letting the words fall out of my mouth while I tried to remember what the other symptoms there might be.

The man smiled at me in an amused but not unkind manner at my verbal flop.

First Hunter I meet outside of my parents' team and I make a fool of myself but hey, what else is new?

"I'm fine," he finally responded. "I don't know where I am exactly or anything about this place but don't worry, I promise that I was not in any sort of conflict so your village is safe. You introduced yourself as Jaune Arc? My name is Shirou Emiya and it's a pleasure to meet you."

He extended his hand and I automatically gave him my own. I just interrogated an amnesiac. Wow, am I an asshole.

As I let go of his hand I realized that he was still standing in the indentation in the ground, the lilies on the edge giving way to crushed grass followed by cracked earth. He seemed to take his eyes off me and took notice of our surroundings instead. There were several trees on both sides of the path that surrounded my village and since it was spring there were quite a few flowers lining the trail. He met my eyes again.

"You have a knife in your back pocket. You don't need to hand it to me but would you take it out?"

My train of thought screeched to a halt as I reached behind myself and grasped Jasper's old knife. Disregarding how he had even known about it when I have been facing him the whole time that was still a really suspicious question. The knife wasn't something for me to kill Grimm with, or, to be more accurate, not something that I _could_ kill with Grimm. Jasper had probably used it to slay plenty of them before she headed off to Beacon. It was something she had given me when she left, something that dad had had her use before they had custom weapons and that I usually kept on me, not because I expected to have to use it but because it was precious to me. It was something that helped me keep trying to become a Huntsman. I would make sure to polish the blade regularly and sometimes just look at it at night and remember how my older sisters used to encourage me that I could become a Huntsman too. I would grasp its handle whenever I felt like giving up, which was almost every night when I failed to reach a fraction of what I remembered them doing, borrowing a bit of a hero's strength whenever I had so little.

I looked at Shirou for a moment, trying to find any deceit on his face but all I saw was a calm and encouraging smile. Okay, at least now if he tried anything then I would already have the knife out.

I took the blade out of its sheath and held it parallel to the ground for him to examine.

"It's a good blade," Shirou noted after a moment. "Very well cared for. It hasn't seen battle in a few years but you have maintained it anyways." He reached out and touched the dual crescents at the hilt, something that my sister had carved during her training days that I often rubbed my thumb over out of habit.

"And it is something that has your determination engraved in it, along with the love your sisters felt for you." I felt my eyes widen, and my jaw go slack as I took half a step back.

I had never seen the person before in my life. He was too young to be one of my parents' friends and Jasper, Emerald, Whitney, and Layla had never been really close to any other teams in Beacon as far as I knew, at least no one who had ever come to Anthem, so how the hell did he know how I had gotten this?

"Have you ever heard of Aura?" Shirou continued, either not noticing or just ignoring my reaction. He held out his hand and a light shone in it. With a small flash his formerly empty hand now held-

"…my knife?" I finished the rest of my thought out loud. I looked at the blade in his right hand and then the blade in my left with my eyes going back and forth between the two. They looked the same, they had the same markings, nicks, engravings, grains, everything. "What-"

"Hunters don't kill Grimm with just muscle. It helps of course, but the thing that allows them to fight back the darkness is Aura, the light of the soul. It is both man's sword and shield, granting them a great amount of protection from all forms of attack and allowing them to strike far harder than they would otherwise be able to."

"How-" I tried again only for him to once again see the direction of my thoughts.

"Did I know about your sister, about how you cared for your blade and how much you wanted to follow in your siblings' footsteps? That would be something analogous to your world's Semblances in a way. A Semblance is an expression of the user, a manifestation of their Aura onto the material world."

…Okay, I got this.

"It's a superpower?"

"…Your sister Emerald said the same thing. Anyways, my ability is the creation of my mental world, primarily weapons, everything from materials to forging process and history. Since I saw your blade I knew that your sister gave it to you as well as how strongly you have tried to follow in all of your older siblings' footsteps."

Huh. Superpowers exist, Hunters have them, one of them seems to be sucking at explaining things and while my training that I have been doing for the last few years has been effective in keeping me in decent physical condition it will never get me to the level of facing Grimm.

In short, I sucked even worse than I thought…no, that's wrong. I remembered how my sisters would come home for semester breaks and Layla and Whitney would jump right out of their airship and land without a scratch. Whenever mom would move furniture around she would pick up the whole couch like it was nothing. No matter how hard I trained, how many miles I ran or pushups I did I had never gotten close to their feats and now I knew why.

The only difference that I had known of before between them and other adults had been the training that they had done so I had tried to do the same. I wrote down everything I could remember of all of the exercises they had done whenever they used to practice with dad and I replicated them as best as I could. Even so, I was never able to do them nearly as well as they had and now I knew why. I had been missing a vital step needed to reach that level. A vital step that may be right in front of me.

In short, now I knew what I was doing wrong and could finally begin to improve and it didn't matter that I had just met him, I knew just the person to help me start.

"Mr. Emiya," I began in what I hoped was a respectful tone as I sheathed my knife, "could you tell me how to use Aura?"

It may seem abrupt but I needed this. If hard work alone wouldn't get me to where I needed then I would bargain, plead, and beg if I had to. I wasn't going to beat around the bush. If he could help me, give me an actual chance to reach my dream instead of the endless failure that has been my track record so far then I would become his apprentice or his servant if that was what he asked and since he had seemed to know the rest of my thoughts he probably knew that too.

The red-haired man smiled as if he had been expecting this question and I felt my body tense, ready to hear what he would say. He took a step to the crater's edge, placed a hand on my shoulder and with a smile resting on his face that conveyed complete understanding spoke.

"I don't know."

"…what?" My muscles remained tense for a few more seconds before whatever feeling of anticipation I had left.

"I should explain," he continued. "An individual's Aura is awakened by someone who already has their Aura active using their Aura to jumpstart your own," he had taken some sort of lecture pose with one arm across his waist holding his elbow and the other upright with his index finger out. "The problem is that my spiritual energy is a bit different from your own. If I were to try and awaken yours then it may succeed, it may do nothing, or it may cause you adverse effects for the rest of your life and I am not willing to risk that."

Damn. Just…damn. The only Hunters in the village were my mom and dad and neither of them would be willing to help me with this, nor were any of their teammates that sometimes visited likely to help either.

Why hello there, Square One, I do believe that we have met before.

"Now don't look like that," Shirou began, probably trying to give some form of reassurance after seeing my disappointment. "While it may be a bit difficult, I can probably find-"

He cut himself off and his gaze seemed to grow slightly distant and his expression curious. He stood there silently as if he was having a conversation that only he could hear. When his eyes came back into focus he nodded to himself and faced me again.

"Very well," he agreed to whatever voices seemed to be in his head, "I give you a choice."

The copy of my sister's knife that he had held onto throughout his speech dissolved into shards of light and two beautiful new swords took its place. He finally stepped out of his self-made hole in the ground and onto the grass beside me. He took a few more steps and then turned towards me, planting the swords amidst a bed of flowers.

"This one," he said while gesturing to the blade at his right, silver in appearance and relatively thin with plant like ribbons wrapping around the cross-guard, a blue handle, and a white flower on its pummel, "is the sword of a Saint. It is a symbol of her faith, determination and ability to inspire others. It is most certainly a hero's weapon."

He then held his hand out to the blade to his left. It was a dark reflection of the first with red writing on the black weapon, its flower being a vibrant pink, and its ribbons having thorns.

"This one, on the other hand, is the tool of an avenger. Some would consider it a villain's blade. Its wielder was someone who fought on despite a whole nation being against her. It is a symbol of her anger, her will to do anything to accomplish her goals, and, though she would never admit it, her desire to have others to stand by her even with the whole world as her enemy. Here is your choice. Which of these weapons will you take as your own? Choose the one that matches you, the one that draws you to it." With his speech over he folded his hand behind his back, curious in what choice I would make.

My hand twitched to the blade at his right but I drew it back. Maybe it was just the amount of emphasis he had placed on each of the swords but I felt like I had to consider this carefully. I looked between the two blades several times, thinking of his description of their users, amazing people that had done amazing things. I closed my eyes, inhaled through my nose and spoke the bitter truth.

"Neither."

"Oh?" Shirou began, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I am not like either of those people," I clarified while meeting his gaze. "I am not a leader and I am not fearless. I don't have the strength to make a whole kingdom my enemy. While the first one sounds like the hero I would like to be I think that if it came down to it, if the only way for me to become a Hunter was to lie or cheat then I would. I try to do what is right, I have tried to become someone that could be a hero, a Huntsman that can make a real difference but…I'm not, not yet."

When I finished, my eyes were to the ground and I found myself looking at the flowerbed. It stung, not just the sensation that I felt at the edge of my eyes, but the words themselves. These words were difficult to say and I knew they were true but even so, they did not change anything. I knew that I would become a Hunter, that even if my mom or dad or whoever said I wouldn't become one I would keep trying until my dream became reality. Even if I didn't have Shirou's help I could make a trip to the nearest village and either beg whatever Huntsman or Huntress they had to teach me or just work for them until they agreed to help me with Aura. I would do whatever it took.

I looked up to see surprise on Shirou's face for a moment before his face seemed to shift to sympathy and he smiled.

"Do you think that they were born great, legends from the womb?" he asked while shaking his head. "I saw your knife. I know how hard you have worked to become a Hunter. Leaders are not born, they are shaped by the forge of experience and fear is natural and healthy as long as you do not let it define you. I have seen the blades of thousands of heroes and I don't think you'll become one." At this his eyes stared deep into my own and the expression on his face became one of absolute confidence. "I know you will. But," he continued looking at the two swords planted among the flowers, "I suppose that I was wrong about you in regards to these two. You aren't suited for one of them."

He grabbed both blades and pulled them from the ground. He held them before him and continued speaking, but not to me.

"You heard him. The boy needs a real weapon and perhaps someone to make sure your story doesn't repeat itself. I will not be able to watch over him forever and you souls resonate with his own. What say you?"

I wasn't really sure who he was expecting to answer but I hadn't run after he had fallen from the sky, or after he revealed Aura to me or even when he had started having conversations with himself. I had made it this far and I wasn't about to quit now.

I opened my mouth but before any sound could come out another voice spoke.

" _He is young, he will do great things. We are kin to his spirit. I will guide him."_ I stared at the silver blade. Did it just-

" **You will not be doing so alone. I will make sure he does not make our blunders. Even it if means working with you to do so."**

My eyes locked on the black blade, certain that I had heard them speak now.

"So you can hear them," Shirou's voice snapped me out of my confusion and I saw him nodding in approval. "It seems that you truly are in tune with them both." He took both of my hands and brought them to the blades. "Run one finger along the edge of each. I'll use your blood as the commonality in order to make sure that the fusion goes smoothly," he said.

Oh God, now he is using a blood offering. I am not going to-…oh, who was I kidding. I put one finger on the edge of each weapon and watched a small trickle of blood go down each sword.

"That's enough," Shirou told me while he brought his hands together, the sword in one aligned with the other, blade to blade and hilt to hilt, and he closed his eyes. The weapons took on a faint glow, the blood on each edge moving to the points of contact. "It acts as a medium of sorts, your blood. Neither sword, nor their wielders, were very alike. Some would even go so far as to say that you could never find two people more different, but both of them have the same starting point, a history that is one of their only commonalities. You're like they were. They did not think of themselves as heroes at your age, nor as warriors or leaders. What they did have, though, was the determination that you have right now." As he spoke the weapons began to morph in his hands, their shapes seemed to meld together until he held only one sword in his hands. It was the same in shape, with the blade of the first and the handle of the second, save for the flower and decorations at the end of each side of the cross-guard which were pure white. I reached out and touched the white flower that looked so close to blooming. I felt a comforting warmth while everything I saw disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

My eyes refocused but the world still seemed out of place. There wasn't a cloud in the sky before I touched my new sword but now there were great billowing golden ones on the horizon everywhere I looked. The flower bed I had been standing in had changed. Instead of lilies and wine cups the ground everywhere I could see was covered in white and black…daffodils, maybe? The only thing that disrupted my view of the flowers were large poles sticking out of the ground like spears or maybe-

" **They're meant for banners."**

I spun around and came face to face with two women. They looked like twins, sisters at least. They would be indistinguishable from each other if they didn't have slightly different skin tones and, as I looked closer, different eye colors as well. The lighter skinned of the two had sharp yellow eyes while her counterpart had a shade of blue that mirrored my own.

" **They're empty for now but that will change,"** she continued

"Um," God damn it, again?! Could I not make one clear introduction today? "Hi?"

The twin dressed in black rolled her eyes at me while the one clad in white smiled encouragingly at my awkwardness.

" _Hello_ ," she greeted warmly. " _It's nice to meet you, Jaune. I am-"_

" **We"** her counterpart cut in **"are Jeanne of Arc, her the Maid of Orleans and I the Dragon Witch."** She said this with a measure of pride that was emphasized by the self-satisfied smirk on her face.

"So your parents gave you both the same name?" I asked, focusing on that of all things.

" _No,"_ the Maid responded. _"We are the same person in a sense. We sprung from the same source but she is the manifestation of a different possibility, a version of myself that sought vengeance on those that had us killed."_

" **Just because you were the first,"** the Witch spat, **"does not mean that you are superior. There is no rule that says an imitation cannot surpass the original! If Shirou has proven anything it is that!"**

She seemed to pause for a moment as she visibly reigned in her temper and deliberately shifted her attention to me.

" **If you need to address us then you may refer to her as Ruler and myself as Avenger."**

"Okay, Avenger," I began, deciding to ask her the obvious question since she spoke last, "where am I?"

She extended her hand to the horizon, seemingly satisfied that I had said something moderately intelligent and I couldn't help but feel like this was her regular personality.

" **You are in La Pucelle. That is the name of the sword that you were just gifted,"** she nodded to herself again as if that explained everything.

"Okay, Ruler," I said while turning to her counterpart, "where am I?"

Ruler's smile grew a bit wider at my question while Avenger scoffed at me.

" _You are in what I guess you could say would be the both of our souls_ ," she explained while gesturing to Avenger. _"To attempt to simplify things, you are in La Pucelle, which is a type of Reality Marble, the inner world of an individual. It's a set world that is defined by the individual's mindset."_

" **It can only be used by someone with an inhuman mindset,"** Avenger inserted. **"Normally, only demons or monsters can actually use them."** She said this last part while smirking towards Ruler who proceeded to don a very fearsome pout upon her face.

"Okay, so the sword is another dimension?"

" _Essentially."_

Ha, and people said that I would never get anything 'worthwhile' from comics. Still, there was another question to ask, I had probably a dozen more but I would settle for just the most important one for now.

"Why am I here?"

" _We wished to speak to you,"_ answered Ruler, _"to introduce ourselves as well as ask an important question of you."_

" **Here is the only place that we can speak to each other face-to-face. We cannot manifest bodies for ourselves out there and will only be able to speak to you telepathically."**

Okay, makes sense so far.

"What is the important question then?"

" **Right to it then. We long since passed from our world."**

" _We no longer have any right to continue in it but we wish to help you."_

" **Both of us see in you our former selves, unshaped by our failures,"**

" _and yet to reach your full potential."_

" **We wish to make sure you do."**

" _We will be your sword,"_

" **and your shield. Your mentor,"**

" _and perhaps your friend."_

" **We may offer council on some of your choices"**

" _but sometimes the decision will be only yours to make."_

" **So, to follow your dreams,"**

" _to grant salvation to those who cry out"_

" **to attain your goals no matter the cost"**

" _and to never give up we ask of you"_

 _" **will you wield us?"**_

"Yes!" They both seemed pleased by my immediate response but what else could I say to such an obvious question? I was agreeing to becoming a hero and to never stop trying to do so. I had decided to do that long before either of them had asked me.

" **Very well. We are the kin of your soul."**

" _Wherever you are there will we be."_

With their piece said, each of them clasped one of my arms in a way that was sort of like a hand shake but where they grasped my forearms instead and the world again flashed bright.

* * *

"It normally doesn't do that."

At Shirou's voice my vision cleared and I found myself back in Anthem.

"What?" He nodded towards my hand and I looked to find that I now was firmly gripping La Pucelle.

"You won't go into their mindscape each time you touch the blade, only whenever you want to. Also, time passes at the same time in there as it does out here so don't be getting any ideas about a mid-battle meeting or something," he answered. "I don't know what you discussed in there so I just wanted to make sure you didn't do anything stupid. What did you guys talk about, I can tell you what else you need to know before you go back to your parents and then Jeanne can run you through everything else tonight."

"Avenger and Ruler introduced themselves and told me about La Pucelle. They then told me why they wanted to help me and asked if I would wield them. I said yes. What else do I need to know?" That was a legitimate question. I think I was keeping my cool pretty well and everything he told me was _awesome_ but I was in over my head. What was he talking about earlier with awakening my Aura, why was he helping me so much, how would I use my Semblance once I awoke my Aura, and were regular Semblances able to make sentient magic swords or things that amazing? Apparently, I didn't need to even ask Shirou.

" _In reverse order: one, Shirou is a ridiculously large exception to most rules, two, we don't know, three, we reacted to you so he brought us to you, and four, same as two."_

I nearly jumped out of my skin before I recognized the voice. Right, telepathy. I had a Saint in my head. A Saint…in my head. I was trying really hard to not think about anything, especially that cute girl in-

" **We are only talking to you right now to give you a sense of what it is like, we can cut it off whenever we want. We do not need to know about your dirty fantasies."**

I sighed in relief right before I blushed in embarrassment.

"You're going to want to try not to talk to them too much whenever other people are around or at least try to make it more conspicuous. People might start thinking you're crazy." **"You probably already have realized this but that's ironic coming from him."** "Anyways, since La Pucelle is a spiritual blade it should be able to spiritualize, to shift into a sort of non-physical form. It comes in really handy for immediate access to your weapon and getting into places 'unarmed.' All you have to do is think shift, not the word just the thought."

I continued to numbly follow his instructions, concentrating on the blade and willing it to disappear. My hands were empty a moment later.

"Good, I was worried that that might not work. Now that your hands are empty have you noticed the change?"

I stared at my hands. I could still sort of feel my sword in the back of my mind and I think that I could call it back if I needed to. I said such to Shirou.

"Yes, but the change I meant was with your hands themselves. What happened to your cuts?"

I looked down and saw what he was talking about. The small cuts I had made on the edge of the blades earlier were gone.

"Did you heal me? Does Aura let you do stuff like that too?" I asked him while wondering how many things Shirou was capable of only for him to shake his head.

"Aura doesn't let you do that, at least not to others, but, when you have enough of it, it will let you heal yourself. Whenever you touched your new sword your soul reacted to theirs and your Aura awakened during that bright flash earlier. You may not feel much different now but when you concentrate on it and go into battle you will see the difference. Congratulations, Jaune. You awakened your Aura and you have a lot."

"Just like that?" I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but I thought it would take a lot more effort to get it.

"Just like that. Your Semblance won't be as easy to find though. That requires experience, personal enlightenment, searching through your emotions and discovering what is really important. That moment can come to you during quiet contemplation or in the clarity that comes with battle and even if it does that doesn't mean that you will know it if it is subtle. How much time do you have before your parents expect you home?"

I actually didn't know. I had lost track of the time around the point when I met Jeanne so I checked my scroll. Only a bit over half an hour had gone by since I started talking to Shirou.

"They will expect me back in an hour. I was only on my evening run for ten minutes before we met so we still have some time. If you want I can take you to meet them?" I wasn't sure if we should considering my parents didn't approve of my career goals and probably wouldn't take a liking to meeting someone who was helping me reach them. They would probably try to convince Shirou not to help me or forbid me from training with him. Shirou seemed to share my views.

"No, it's fine. They probably wouldn't like me training you so maybe hold it off for a later date. I was just asking to find out how much time we had. Could you materialize La Pucelle again?"

I did so and he took it from my hand for a moment. The blade seemed to become increasingly thin while he spoke.

"I was going to do this once you got your Aura to make sure you didn't accidentally cut your hand off but that came much quicker than I expected. La Pucelle is indestructible and so I can make it sharper without decreasing its durability or even its weight. In the event that you have to use it against someone without Aura and you do not have to kill then make sure to keep the blade in its sheath when you fight them."

When he handed the sword back to me along with a black and silver sheath he had just made I noticed Shirou had also made a new sword, a wooden one that had a tiger sash and a feeling of death radiating from it.

"Excellent. Now you have a sword, now you have a shield. Now we can start your training. Don't worry about my body, there is no way you will cut me."

I think I managed to get a half-formed 'What' out of my mouth before the tip of his sword was thrust into my face and I learned that even with Aura I could still feel pain.

"Your guard is down and every part of you is screaming 'hit me!' Widen your stance, find your center of gravity and a good balance. Adjust the grip on your sword, tight enough for there to be no chance of it slipping from your hands but not so tight that it shakes. Don't drop your blade for the next hour. You have a decent musculature but no technique so the habits you form now will last the rest of your life and when it comes to archery, blacksmithing, housekeeping, or swordsmanship I do not allow for anything less than absolute perfection and I shall not allow for you to either."

And so my intimate relationship with what I would come to know as the Torashinai began as it repeatedly drove itself into my flesh and I continued to come back for more.

 **Ending Notes:**

La Pucelle: The Duality of Man, Rank: A, Type: Anti-unit. The twin hand-and-a-half swords of the witch and the maid brought together by a previously impossible commonality. As Jaune Arc's soul resonated with the Noble Phantasms and the sword acknowledged him as someone worthy to wield them he gained possession of the weapon. Their abilities are not overt and while the blade is improbably sharp it has no fearsome technique to release upon activation. La Pucelle instead favors a more subtle approach with the weapon's power lying in its very nature as a form of reality marble as the spirit of Jeanne of Arc herself. As the souls of both Ruler and Avenger reside in La Pucelle they are able to freely give advice to their wielder and are able to share in his senses and forewarn him of any danger they may perceive. While attributes such as class skills and most personal skills cannot be transferred the skill Revelation is still possessed by the spirits within and a measure of insight to choosing a correct path may sometimes be utilized. The blade cannot be broken and while it does possess the ability of the original to be utilized as a suicide attack it would require the approval of all three users to perform and is therefore impossible.

Jasper's knife: one of the four knives given to Jaune's older siblings, Jasper, Emerald, Whitney, and Layla, by their father when they began their training at eleven and twelve and was present as he explained aura and Semblances to his children. They all started their training to be Huntresses simultaneously since both sets of twins, Jasper and Emerald plus Whitney and Layla, were born within a year of each other. They were given their blades to train with before having weapons forged that would take advantage of whatever Semblances they possessed. Jasper gave her knife to a seven year old Jaune right before going to Beacon with the rest of her sisters to form team JEWL with Whitney and Layla being allowed in at the age of sixteen, which was a record for the time.

Torashinai: Taiga Fujimura's favorite practice blade. The blade has a minor cursed nature attached to it that inspires a moderate level of fear in the target regardless of how often the target may have been exposed to it. This actually works to create what some would consider an ideal learning environment as people often learn most effectively when under a medium amount of emotional arousal.

Shirou and La Pucelle's appearance: search limited zero over and La Pucelle fate. Only differences would be no sword in the first and a thinner blade and a black handle for the second with the blue cross-guard now white. I made La Pucelle thinner because I simply thought that if you had an indestructible blade and the ability to make it incredibly sharp without the danger of cutting its user then why wouldn't you? Also, I very much debated leaving the blades separate and teaching Jaune to dual wield black and silver blades but as cool as that sounded it would not be very realistic and also may conflict with some potential future plot points so I decided against it.

Thanks so much to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed the prologue. 40+ of the first and 70+ of the second may not seem like a lot to some people but I really appreciate it and do not think I would have gotten to this nearly as quickly if I hadn't felt so encouraged. On that note, I would not expect the next chapter to update this quickly as I already had a lot of this one written out, but on the plus side I had to move several pages of this chapter that I had written to the next chapter since I realized that it would fit better in a different scene I had planned instead so the next chapter is already started. I apologize for any spelling errors that I may have missed combing over this thing half a dozen times.

Edited out some glaring spelling errors. Don't forget to fav, follow and review. Feedback is welcome and I definitely need it.


	3. Hero II

**Author's Note:** Wow it has been a while. Took a bit longer than expected since I had to use the whole month up to finals studying and I then spent half of the month of December away from a laptop but that did give me some time to literally write most of this chapter down. As some small compensation, this chapter is significantly longer than the others. Speaking purely content wise you could take half of The Forge, add it to The Hero I and it would still be shorter. Now, onto reviews:

Shirou: yes, he will be an important part of the story but his influence will be sort of limited. More on that in chapter three (this being chapter two since the first was a prologue).

La Pucelle: I really like having Jeanne (both of them) be Jaune's primary teacher because: one, she's his character inspiration, two, her noble phantasm's description allows me to insert her in, and three, La Pucelle's magical fire attack can only be used as a sort of suicide move that none of the three would want to do. Something like Excalibur or Photon Ray is way too OP for Lv. 1 Jaune so I think La Pucelle fits well. Can't make it too easy for him. If I wanted to I could maybe justify giving him Luminosite Eternelle or La Grondement Du Haine but the first converts Magic Resistance, a stat Jaune doesn't even have, into an area wide defense and I think the second is supposed to convert the user's grudges into an attack but Jaune doesn't have enough hatred. I could introduce it as some sort of Chekhov's Gun for if I ever wanted to turn him into an edgelord, not saying hatred=edge but I think that is how it would turn out, but that thought doesn't really appeal to me especially since there are way too many edgy Jaune fics already. Besides, I don't think Ruler would ever let him go down that route.

Also, not really a spoiler but I spent way too long thinking of Jaune's parents names. At first, I thought of being historically accurate and going with Jacques and Isabella but Ryuugi's already done that and there was a high amount of characterization given to both. Plus, I don't think either evokes a color which is something people can be real sticklers for. Then I was going to go with Nick and Juniper, the first short for Nickel and the second because of JNPR but something close to that is already being used by Coeur and I wanted to make it a bit easier for people to keep their fics straight in their minds so I changed Juniper to June but kept Nick for Nickel since it is still vaguely color related. Am I overthinking this? Probably.

Resonance

I skidded back from the blow I just received, only managing to block less than every other strike that Mr. Emiya sent my way even though our hour of sparring was almost up.

" _That was better, but remember that normally you should only block if you are unable to parry. If you can divert the enemies attack then you won't have to expand as much energy and you can leave them off balance for a counterattack."_

" **Perhaps then you won't sound as tired as a draft horse after a hundred-year campaign, after only one hour of light sparring no less."**

All I could manage as a response was heavy breathing but that was all I could afford. I knew that I wouldn't get a chance to catch my breath, if I was lax then all I would get would be a strike to the stomach to steal whatever air I had managed to regain. My expectations were rewarded when I looked up from the blow to find that in the second between skidding back and looking up my opponent had decided to disappear which meant he wa-jump.

I leapt before I could finish my thought, mostly avoiding Mr. Emiya's wooden sword. I say mostly because I wasn't fast enough and he still caught the sole of my shoe. I lost my balance, a situation that he capitalized on with a kick to my side that sent me into the nearest tree, the tree in question being about a dozen feet away. I had only had it for about an hour but thank God for Aura.

" _Okay, the hour is almost up. This will probably be the last exchange for the day. Finish strong!"_

I was planning on it. It had taken me ten minutes before I was even able to dodge an attack and the rest of the time to get to the point of blocking less than half of the ones I couldn't dodge. The whole time I hadn't been able to get my blade within a foot of him before he would redirect it so quickly and fluidly that I would be left wondering what happened before being smacked in the face and remembering that I had other things to wonder about.

'Going to attack.'

" **You do remember how well that went last time right?"**

'This won't be like last time. Trying something different.'

" _Very well, do your best."_

" **More than your best, do it right. Don't swing with just your arms and certainly not just your hands, put the whole of your body behind it if you ever decide that you want to hit anything worth a damn. Don't close your eyes for a second and for God's sake Follow Through!"**

Right. I had tried to hit him before, probably a dozen times, but this time would be different. I ran towards Mr. Emiya and twisted my body in a diagonal swing, putting my arms, waist, back and all of my momentum into my attack. I had tried this exact same move before, three times in fact. The first time I had been sloppy and had barely had any force behind my swing. The second time had been deemed 'barely passable for a novice' by Avenger and the third had been used to verify something. Each time he had diverted my weapon with the edge of his before sidestepping and allowing my own momentum to carry me past him before delivering a vicious swing to my backside. I imagined that that was the same way this exchange would have turned out… if I had been stupid enough to try the same thing again.

Shift.

As La Pucelle approached his wooden sword it phased from reality, and the swing that Mr. Emiya's sword was ready to block blocked nothing but air. My hands passed his arm and the spot that my blade would inhabit was already well within his guard.

Shift.

And my sword was now rematerialized inside his guard, past his arm, and ready to _finally_ hit-

Suddenly empty hands grabbed my wrist and in a swirl of motion that I was unable to comprehend I was thrown over Shirou's shoulder and into the same tree from earlier. I blearily thought that there was going to be a me-shaped indention in it if he kept this up.

"Good job. You almost could have hit me with that last one."

"How?" I croaked out in regards to how he knew what I was about to do instead of how I could have gotten him even though both may have had the same answer. Clarity was for people who could breathe because they hadn't just been thrown into a tree.

"The first time you swung from that direction your form was sloppy and your strike didn't have much force behind it. By the second I think Jeanne had corrected you on your swing but you hadn't tried to do a third swing in the same way for any of your other approaches, only one to make a mistake and then one to revise it before trying something else, so I thought you were probing. When you went for a fourth attempt from the same angle I knew you had to have something planned. Also," he paused and stuck out his hand, rematerializing and dematerializing his own weapon before my eyes, "I've astralized my own weapons like that before to take my opponents off guard. If you are going to try that again then be mindful that the sword loses its momentum when it is astralized so unless you can accelerate it to a sufficient speed after you rematerialize it then you won't have as much force behind your blow. That move probably would have worked on someone unprepared. Good job for thinking outside of the box, you'll need that in your line of work. I think with that we can call it good for today."

I should have thought of that, of course he would have tried something similar, and I didn't even think about the lack of force it would have if it did hit. Next time I was going to have to try harder, be more focused. I dispelled La Pucelle and collapsed backwards against my tree, out of breath, almost out of Aura, and entirely out of areas on my body that had yet to be hit by Mr. Emiya's sword. If I didn't have Aura then I would be a black and blue blond.

" _Good job, Jaune. That last strike was quite creative. You seem to be a very fast learner."_

" **Indeed. Your stance, which was originally pitiably awful, is now just pitiable,"** I couldn't tell from the lack of malice in her tone if Avenger was mocking me or if this was her being encouraging. I'll take it a compliment.

" _Regardless of her words, you are doing quite well. If you wish to continue doing this well however you have to remember to continue working hard. I don't know how strong a Huntsman is but I am sure that there will be no room for slacking."_

I nodded, thinking about how right she was. Students normally started training to become Hunters at or before the age of twelve and they entered one of the combat schools at seventeen and may have already gone to a preparatory academy three years earlier. I was working with less than a fifth of the time that the average Beacon applicant had and the ones who actually made it into the school had often been trained for even longer. If I didn't learn _fast_ then I had no hope of getting into Beacon at all.

As for what they had said about hard work, I wasn't good at most things but when it came to stupid, single-minded, persistence I couldn't be beat! If I replaced both my morning and evening training with training with my sword then that would put me at close to four hours each day. I'd need to use more breaks as I was already exhausted from just one hour's work but I would keep getting better until I would be able to go the whole time without any rests, until I could block or parry all of the attacks that came my way and give a few in return. If that could be made true through any amount of perseverance then it was as good as done.

"You're doing very well," Shirou encouraged. "I can't be absolutely sure after only one hour but you should be ready for Beacon in a year if you continue training for the same amount of time as you have been. I think that Jeanne, both Ruler and Avenger, will make excellent teachers and a persistent student will help."

It was good to hear that from Mr. Emiya as well since he probably had an actual idea of the combat level suitable for a Beacon initiate. Even if I was going to be near the bottom in terms of skill going into Beacon thanks to my late start that didn't mean that I had to stay there. If I got in, even if I was the weakest in the school, and trained twice as hard as everyone else there then by my last year I could maybe be one of the top students like JEWL had been when they attended.

"Now, in regards to your weapon," he continued. "La Pucelle is the best sword you could ever hope for but it is a sword. You won't be able to throw it and have it return to you like a boomerang while bisecting your enemies on its return path, make powerful magical blasts launch from its tip, or use its pommel to aim a death laser, it's a classic that way."

I don't think anyone would ever expect a sword to do that. They swung, they parried, they blocked. If they were owned by a Huntsman or Huntress then they were probably also a gun but nothing as extreme as what he was talking about.

"My point is that you don't have a ranged weapon and the Creatures of Grimm can and will take advantage of that, often through ranged attacks of their own or by diverting you to one area while other Grimm target civilians or locations far away from you while you're helpless to stop them. Most Hunters get around this through the use of Dust ammunition integrated into their weapons or, failing that, range-oriented teammates but I don't really know how to use Dust in a proper or intricate fashion and you won't be on a team for another year. I could certainly make you a _decent_ firearm but guns aren't really my specialty and, as I said when we began sparring, I am not going to settle for decent. Even if they were my forte that would leave you pretty limited in terms of Dust rounds as the bullets wouldn't be reusable. Since we don't yet want to let your parents know what you're doing we would have to get you ammunition in some other manner, probably from the nearest town that sells it, as the one in Anthem would likely recognize you, and they probably don't let just anyone purchase a highly volatile and destructive substance. I could think of a few workarounds, such as me stealing ammunition for you or even mining and refining our own Dust and experimenting with original bullets, but all of those methods would be dependent on my continued support instead of being something you would eventually be able to do on your own. So, to circumvent the whole issue, I think it would be best to just not use a firearm at all.

"Tomorrow when you go on your run, whether I am present or not, there will be a bow and several arrows here for you to begin practicing with. Firearms are generally easier to use and pack more of a punch but if I am around long enough to make you a real bow then no gun will ever be able to compare. If you have no talent with the bow then I can try to get you a pistol or rifle instead but it would be best in the long run for it to not have to come to that."

I had to fight down the smile that wanted to show on my face. Everything he said, everything he had told me since I called out to him in the crater really, sounded great, amazing even. He had helped me so much that I thought I could _feel_ my dream getting closer and closer but… there was something that was bothering me, something that needed to be said now before I lost the courage to say it later.

"Mr. Emiya, are you sure this is okay?"

"Hm?" he raised an eyebrow towards me. I had had enough time to get my breath back, I should have elaborated more.

"I mean, you helping me so much. My town is pretty well protected, the mountains to the east and west and the lack of Grimm to the north means that Anthem only needs to be defended from the southern wall. My parents have been able to protect it for decades so the town probably won't hire another Huntsman for guard. I'm not saying that I don't want you to stick around and I'm really grateful for everything you've done for me but I don't think that there are any areas around here that would justify an extended mission. Are you sure it's alright for you to be staying around for so long?"

I assumed that that was what he had meant when he said 'whether I am here or not' and 'if I am around long enough'. Eventually he would have to take a mission and move on, leaving me behind in the process. When that happened I didn't think I would have the audacity to ask him to stay, he didn't owe me anything, quite the opposite with him giving me both La Pucelle and my Aura, and whether that day was today or the day I left for Beacon I would just have to look him in the eye and say how grateful I was. Anything else would be unbefitting of an Arc.

"You could say I am on a mission right now," he replied while closing his eyes with a small smile on his face. "I don't know how long it will last before I am called away on a quest of a different sort but I'll try to make sure that everything is in good hands before I go. As for the nature of my task…" He shook his head and turned towards his former landing site. "That will take a rather long explanation. Jeanne can give you the general information sometime after you get home and I will try to fill in the rest when you get here tomorrow morning. Speaking of when you get home."

He walked over to me and crouched down before flicking my arm. The last bit of my Aura was dispelled in a small shimmer of light. He locked his eyes onto mine and he wore a hard expression as if to make sure I was paying attention and I found myself straightening a little.

"Your Aura is very strong and it will protect you as long as it is able. The average Hunter relies on the protection of their Aura to such a degree that they regularly use the explosions and recoil produced by their weapons as a means of transportation. It can be easy for them to forget what it was like before their Auras were unlocked.

"Regular people do _not_ have theirs unlocked and the average person who does have it unlocked, such as bodyguards, police officers, and soldiers, can take one or two hits before becoming just as vulnerable as everyone else. You have a lot of Aura and people are fragile now. You have to remember that. If you don't want to break a friend's arm the next time you give them a high-five or crush your sisters the next time you hug them then you need to be careful and constantly mind your strength. Do you understand?"

I couldn't help but picture the last scenario he had described and I immediately vowed to make sure it remained just a thought. My older sisters must have always had to keep their strength in check whenever they would play with me after their training. They had always taken care not to hurt me and I would do the same for Coral, Cynthia, and Diana.

I nodded firmly to Mr. Emiya.

"Good. Remember, in order to awaken you Semblance you need to think about what is most important to you. Do so every night before you go to sleep, contemplate what excites you, what stirs you and fills you with a sense of purpose, something that literally moves your soul. I'll be off to your town's library. Expect a longer training session tomorrow."

At that he walked in the direction of Anthem proper and after a few minutes I stood up and began jogging back to my house. At around halfway there I heard Ruler's voice in my head, something that I was starting to get a little bit used to.

" _Jaune, seeing as we are going to be together for the foreseeable future perhaps it would be best to learn more about each other. Could you tell us more about your family before we see them?"_

Right, best to have some names to put to faces before they met the five of them.

'Sure, I was born the fifth of eight children, big family, I know. My parents' names are Nick and June Arc, short for Nickel if you were wondering. Soon after they were married mom gave birth to a set of twins, Jasper and Emerald, and then got pregnant again only a few months later with another set of twins, Whitney and Layla. My parents say that two sets of twins so close together was such a handful that they didn't even think of trying again for years which is why I was born almost a decade later. I was followed pretty quickly by Coral, Cynthia and Diana, my younger sisters, each of whom was born individually-I mean, not twins. I used to always tell my older sisters that the rest of us were one of a kind while they were part of a set. They always said that that made them twice as awesome in response to my supposed uniqueness.'

I missed them. I should go visit later.

'Anyways, the only ones still living with my parents are myself, and my three younger sisters. Jasper, Emerald, Whitney and Layla left the house and went to Beacon, a training academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses, almost ten years ago. Coral is fourteen, Cynthia twelve, and Diana ten and I think I forgot to mention it, but I am sixteen. I wouldn't know what else to say without just having you meet them. They're family and I wouldn't trade them for anything. If you want to know hobbies then my dad is really good at stone work, making statues and stuff. My mom is a history buff, Coral seems to be trying to learn as much cooking as she can from my mom, Cynthia loves reading and Diana recently discovered comic books.'

Now that I thought about it, maybe my dad's Semblance had something to do with rock. He never let me watch him work nor had I ever seen him with any carving tools but his statues were more lifelike than anything I had ever seen. Funny how you can notice little details that pointed to something larger only after seeing the finished product.

'Anyways, you'll be able to meet them soon, my house is right around…'

I exited the last of the trees around the property and came to my house, a building large enough to have at one point comfortably housed nine. My parents' occupation had benefits beyond the whole defending humanity and superpower which in this case came in the form of a rather large salary.

'Here.'

"I'm back," I called to whoever was listening as I entered the front door.

"About time you got here," Coral replied from the kitchen. "Now come in here and stir the sauce."

"Sure, sure," I agreed easily, walking into the kitchen and seeing Coral, her hair done up in a long ponytail with an apron tied around her waist. I saw that it was her favorite one when I walked next to her at the stove and saw the words on the front. 'I am in a kitchen surrounded by innumerable instruments of murder. Do something to the cook. I dare you'. "So where's everybody else?"

She took a moment to check on some chopped potatoes before answering. "Diana is watching TV, mom and dad went to investigate some sort of dust cloud that Old Man Hendrickson reported seeing around an hour ago and Cynthia is reading one of her books upstairs. Diana is too short to stir anything without a stool and since I am not risking walking in on Cynthia 'Forgets to lock the door during her activities' Arc," I think saw her shudder a little bit, "that means that _you_ get to be the gracious benefactor to the completion of our meal! Drain the excess water from the potatoes into the sink."

I mechanically followed directions while going over what she had said. That middle one sounded strange. Did that have something to do with the cloud of dust Mr. Emiya kicked up on his landing? If so then they would probably find the very visible crater that was on my jogging route and that could raise plenty of questions.

'Avenger, Ruler what do we do if they see the crater? They would know that that was on my route! They would probably ask if I had seen anything and I am not a good liar! What if they-'

" **Stop worrying so much. You apparently didn't notice,"** even though Avenger didn't say it I could almost hear her thinking 'because you're an idiot', **"but Shirou already smoothed out the crater earlier while he was smacking you around the clearing."**

Oh. Well that took care of that, I guess.

"I see," I said, acknowledging both Coral and Avenger. "How has your day been then?"

"Better now that you're here."

"Huh?"

"Better now that you're here to stir the sauce. Make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom."

"Right, sorry."

I then heard the door to the front porch open and close behind me.

"We're back, couldn't find anything strange like Hendrickson said. Not too surprising since he is called Old Man for a reason but he does pick up on things every now and again that the rest of us would miss," my mom called before she and my dad entered the kitchen. "Ah, you're back. How was your run, Jaune?"

I had the sudden and inexplicable urge to tell my parents everything that had happened, how I had Aura now, teachers, a weapon and soon I would have the skills to use it. How becoming a Huntsman was no longer just a pipedream but something that was more certain to happen.

I stomped on that urge as hard as I could. I knew that that conversation wouldn't go well and to pretend otherwise would be fooling myself. I would tell them, eventually, whenever I had advanced enough to pass the Beacon entrance exam and had gotten my scores back. Then I would have irrefutable proof that I was strong enough and at that point there wouldn't be any way for them to stop me. Until then, what took place earlier between Shirou, Ruler, Avenger, and I would remain between Shirou, Ruler, Avenger and I.

"It went fine. I think I got a little bit faster. Maybe I was going so fast that I kicked up that dust cloud Mr. Hendrickson saw?" The dust cloud was out of the conversation, there was no reason to bring it back in!

"Maybe, maybe," my father brushed over my response. "Any other improvement?"

He didn't normally ask much, did he know something? No, no, I could do this. I raised my shoulders a bit and turned back to the sauce both as to not look them in the eye and to make sure neither of them would be able to see the small smile that came to my face. I was still a little excited about Aura but I would have to try to keep a neutral tone.

"Nope." Nailed it. My father patted my shoulder as the both of them walked past me towards their room to put up their weapons.

I sighed and relaxed as they left. Okay, I could make it, I could keep everything a secret for just a year. I turned to Coral to ask if I should begin setting the table but I froze when I met her eyes. Her narrowed, suspicious, analytical eyes that were significantly closer to me than before seeing as she was leaning forward intently. Her entire posture was intimidating and I felt that if her gaze was any sharper she could have cut me with it. The rest of her face wasn't much better with her lips pursed, and she didn't move a single muscle as she peered at me, silently demanding the secret I was hiding. I let loose a mental plea to the heavens and actually got response.

" _Language."_

" **Also, stop panicking, both immediately and in general. She can't know anything important just from that smile and don't let me catch you freezing again. Hurry up and get back to what you were doing."**

Right, that was…

"Should I start setting the table? The potatoes have softened, the sauce looks delicious and judging by the smell from _the oven the bread is probably good, right?_ " I got the last part of the sentence out very quickly in what may have been a squeak.

Her gaze didn't leave my face, particularly my mouth where my smile had been before she cut it down, but she gave a slight nod. I grabbed silverware from the drawer near the dining room and plates from the middle right cabinet and began placing them around the table, feeling her attention on me the whole time I was doing so, even when she shouted 'Dinner!' to the rest of the house.

Diana was the first to enter, her blonde curls bobbing with every step. Cynthia's footsteps followed down from upstairs, her hair falling flat and her bangs almost covering her face enough to not notice the slight dark circles under her eyes from staying up late. Mom and dad were last and we began to eat.

'So,' I thought midway through my meal to my currently nonexistent sword, 'does it seem like Coral is keeping an eye on me to you two?'

" _Yes, she does seem very observant. Maybe she is just concerned about you. How do you normally react when someone asks you about your training?"_

'Normally? I think I say something like 'fine', 'okay', 'could be better'. Nothing really different there.'

" _So it was solely your expression then. That can be easily passed off as having a stray thought perhaps a joke or of something cute like a dragon. We shouldn't worry about it, she will likely forget in an hour or so after she has some time alone and something else to fixate on."_

" **Or perhaps she thinks that your smile was showing that you had grown complacent with your mediocrity and she was wondering if you had chosen a career path that she thought more suited to your talents?"**

'I guess it's possible,' I thought but it didn't feel quite right. None of my younger siblings had ever shown any interest in my choice to become a Huntsman and it would be weird for them to start now. I soaked up the last of the sauce from my plate with a slice of bread before eating it and cleaning my dishes in the sink. I had something else to focus on for now.

'So how should I try to use my Semblance, just go up to my room and start meditating?'

" _It would likely be best to go to a place where you can think clearly, find a comfortable position and think for about half an hour or so. If you need to talk to someone then we will be here for you. We always will."_

'Thanks, Ruler.' I didn't know what else to say but we had a mental link so I tried to focus on the sword or where I could feel it and convey the gratitude I felt. I think she understood because I felt something like assurance from her and I smiled. Now, somewhere where I could think clearly about what was important…

"I'm going to visit JEWL, I'll be back soon," I said to those left at the table, Coral, Diana, mom and dad.

"Fine, but you owe me a story before bed," Diana replied while I passed through the back door.

" _Where are we going?"_

'To see the rest of my family. It's normally pretty easy to think over there,' I replied while starting down a well-worn path. 'It's only a few minutes from here. My family lives pretty close to the southern end of the wall as that is where most Grimm attacks normally occur. That also makes it the least lived in area in Anthem. There aren't any other houses within over a mile of my own.'

" **Must be planning to pick up the pace if they live only minutes away then."**

Instead of going faster I kept my relaxed pace and thought about my sisters and all those times they came back from Beacon.

'JEWL, the team that my sisters made while they were in Beacon, used to always come to this one area to hangout, a small clearing up ahead. Not to train since any area they practiced in would get destroyed, just to relax. They took me a couple times when I was younger and they had gotten into Beacon. The Headmaster let Whitney and Layla start a year early at sixteen because he didn't want to break them up. They were the top of their year for all four years of school and they would tell me stories about what it was like there.' I looked up to the sky and saw the last bit of the sun's light leave as night came. They would always go to the clearing later whenever the moon had come out and reached a high enough angle for its light to fall past the top of the trees. It was always really beautiful then.

'Stories like how the variety of food the cafeteria offered was fit for a king and how you shared one room among four people, having to eventually trust them entirely due to it being impossible to keep secrets from them forever. When I first met Mr. Emiya, I thought he was concussed like they told me Layla was after Jasper smashed her into a wall. They used to tell me about how vast Vale was, a hundred times bigger than Anthem with all kinds of shops and how all of them seemed to be run by one person. About the faculty with a history teacher who never stopped for air, just coffee, a second teacher who could put students to sleep with a word and a headmistress that could wake a whole class with a wave of her wand. Oh, they always used to say that the headmaster would die if he didn't act cool and mysterious all the time but that he lost all of his cool points since, in their words, 'his chair is clearly overcompensation'.' We were almost there, just at the end of this pathway and around this bend. I could probably talk aloud to Jeanne but it was best to wait until I reached JEWL just to be safe.

"… _Jaune."_

'They always thought that it was really cool there and said how I should hurry up and reach seventeen so that I could join them. They weren't around for when I actually started practicing to become a Hunter and in a way I was glad for that. When I didn't grow strong like them after years of effort I thought that I wasn't talented enough, or that I wasn't trying hard enough. I was glad because I thought that if they saw me, saw how much I failed where they succeeded then they wouldn't believe I could make it. Just like everyone else.'

"… **Used to, had, were, thought, saw. Those are the only words you use to describe them. I don't think that I've ever heard you talk about your older sisters in anything but past tense."**

"…Yeah, you haven't."

I walked into a clearing and saw my older sisters sitting together. Jasper was in the center in her suit, her waist length hair framing her body with her arms around Whitney and Layla. The younger set of twins were each facing outward in light armor with a single braid over opposite shoulders, each a perfect mirror of the other, always part of a set. Emerald had her chin on Jasper's head and her long arms wrapped around her shoulders. None of the jewelry she wore was as pure or as radiant as the small smile on her face, the same smile that was on all of their faces. They looked like they were the happiest people in the world, sharing a perfect moment. A moment that would last forever.

My dad really did make the best statues.

" **How did it happen?"**

"…"

" **You took us here. You didn't say they were passed on so I am assuming that you wanted to tell us what they were like before explaining what happened. You said this was where it was easiest to think, particularly in regards to what stirred you to become a Hunter, so their deaths must have had something to do with it, some motivational factor. You have my attention."**

" _Whenever you're ready, Jaune."_

I moved over to the headstone and sat down in front of it with my arms wrapped around my legs and my chin resting on my knees. I materialized La Pucelle and let it rest on the ground alongside me. JEWL, Jeanne, Jeanne, JEWL. Right after they passed I could almost pretend that they were still here, right in front of me. I took a deep breath and thought about my sisters and all those times they had come back from Beacon.

And the one time they hadn't.

"Beacon is a combat school. It trains Huntsmen and Huntresses to protect all four kingdoms and most consider it _the_ school to go to. It has over a ninety-five percent survival rate with the graduates having the longest average career time. Every trip outside the main kingdoms that is thought to pose any danger is accompanied by an experienced Hunter even if they don't interfere unless absolutely necessary.

"On a trial mission in their senior year it became absolutely necessary. They were supposed to act as an additional guard to a village called Terebinth while their wall was being rebuilt, not really having to do much in the way of actually defending but meant to be there to alleviate any doubts the people would have about their safety. The village was pretty well protected, it had its own Huntress and the place had been around for a while so not only were the inhabitants more used to life outside of the kingdoms but Terebinth had even had maintenance done on its wall before so the townsfolk weren't as uneasy as they could have been. Two veteran Hunters and the strongest senior team in Beacon. They were able to handle everything that came at them for the first couple days, only some minor Grimm trying to probe the walls before evaporating under rifle fire or sliced to ribbons if somebody felt like stretching their legs a little.

"Everything was going fine until the third night when the city's Dust reactor exploded and took part of the town with it. The Huntsman that was talking to my parents said that no one knew what went wrong with it but the town's Huntress was right outside the building when it went critical and she was able to shield a lot of the civilians but put herself out of commission in the process. He said that everyone was already a little on edge with the wall being repaired and when people are woken up in the night by a thunderous explosion and they look outside to see the only light in the whole town coming from the smoking wreck that used to be their power plant they panic. A lot. Which brought a lot of Grimm. Terebinth's Huntress was trying to calm everyone down using an emergency broadcast system to everyone's scrolls while JEWL helped the Huntsman chaperoning them, Qrow Branwen, with all the Grimm. Things were bad but it looked like they still might pull through.

"Then the ground started shaking and a section of the wall on the other side of the village was destroyed by a Goliath."

" _ **A giant?"**_

"It's an elephant Grimm over a dozen stories tall. The really big ones are supposed to be content just circling the main kingdoms but Grimm don't have rules they have to follow, they have habits that they can break and this one did so as easily as it did Terebinth's wall and whatever was left of its morale. I did some reading on Goliaths later, there habits, strengths and such. Lesser Grimm try to stay at least a hundred meters away because a Goliath's trunk can produce a noise so powerful that it kills almost anything that close to it. I think that's why no more Grimm tried to go through the Goliath's entrance but the amount trying to go through the original one doubled. Maybe one of my sisters had a Semblance to deal with it because Mr. Branwen said they ran off to face it while he had to stay behind to deal with the new wave of monsters flocking to the town's increased despair." I took a breath. Almost finished, just the ending left. "By the time that reinforcements arrived the Goliath was already dead as well as a fifth of Terebinth's population and my sisters."

"… _I am surprised that your parents told you so much about what happened."_

"They didn't," my voice came out rather bitter when I said that but I didn't mind. "I was the one who met Qrow at the door. Whenever my mom and dad came home and saw him they probably knew why he was there because they sent the rest of us upstairs. I snuck back down to the dining room entrance to hear what the Hunters were talking about and that was how I heard all of what happened. My dad hadn't started training me yet to become a Huntsman and he never would. After I had snuck back upstairs and Mr. Branwen had left, my mom and dad went up to tell us about Jasper, Emerald, Whitney, and Layla. All my parents said was that they wouldn't be coming back, that they had died on a mission. I think that they expected me to, I don't know, just break down? I had always been the one who was closest to them. Coral only had a few memories of when they lived at home and Cynthia and Diana had none. They only knew them from when they came home during semester breaks. I guess it would make sense for me to have reacted the worst, to scream and cry, call them liars and things like that."

" **But you didn't."**

"Nope. After I heard it downstairs I felt numb but after my parents just said that they died, no deeper explanations, no reasons, no saying how they had saved most of the town I felt determined. I had always wanted to become a Hunter, it was something that I believed in. I mean, being a hero, fighting against something that was indisputably evil for the good of everyone, how could I not? My sisters losing their lives didn't change that. It was something that they wanted to do and they were smart, they had to have chosen to fight there knowing what they were risking. The Goliath was on the other side of Terebinth, they could have run out of the town and never looked back but they didn't. I think they stayed so that others could live, so that other families would remain whole."

I looked up above the statue of my sisters to the darkening sky. The sun had set but the moon had not yet risen high enough for its light to pass above the trees. I was alone in the dark with a beautiful sword and a beautiful gravestone.

"I didn't cry until I was laying in my bed that night. It was one of the only times I cried for them but I think they would have understood that it wasn't the amount of tears that mattered. The very next morning I asked my dad if he would start training me and he looked shocked. He told me to wait, that I wasn't thinking clearly. I _waited_ a whole month, exactly a month, to make sure he knew I was thinking just fine before asking him again. I think he thought that my first request was some sort of spur of the moment decision and that I was grieving and acting rashly due to what had happened because he wasn't expecting to be asked again. He turned me down. He told me that he didn't think that he and mom should have ever told us the bedtime stories with Huntsmen and Huntresses or their past equivalents going on fantastic journeys or fighting fearsome beasts. He said that they had pushed JEWL down their career path and that they were not going to do the same to me and my sisters. I tried to tell them that I didn't want to become a Hunter because of what they said but he never listened and my mom didn't either. They wouldn't talk with me about it afterwards and I stopped trying to talk to them about it as well but I never gave up on my goal. When I started training myself neither of them ever said anything but I think that was because they never thought I could do it…and they were right.

"This may sound stupid but I thought that training alone was what set Hunters apart from everyone else. I watched my siblings train a few times, I once saw Jasper break a whole tree by mistiming a kick and Layla then using said tree to smack Jasper into another tree which also broke. I thought that if I just did the same things they did then I would become as strong as they were. When that didn't happen I thought I wasn't running as hard or pushing myself as intensely as they were. I kept going harder and longer and nothing ever changed. Week after week, month after month, for four _years._ I improved, exercising for hours every day, but only as much as a civilian. I…I probably would have kept it up too, never getting close to my goal and never getting into Beacon. That is, if I hadn't met you and Mr. Emiya. So I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you. Avenger, Ruler, thank you so much."

" _Jaune…we meant what we said and Shirou did too. Whether or not you had met us I think that you still would have become someone amazing. Genius is part talent and part hard work and what someone lacks in one can be made up for in another. The determination you have isn't common and I believe you would have still gone far. We are just going to make sure that you can go farther."_

"Thanks, Ruler." I was beginning to sound like a broken record. Even if I wasn't sure if she was right the fact that she encouraged me meant something.

"… **Is that why we came here?"** Avenger cut in with a voice full of scorn, **"Because you feel a strong calling?"** Her voice was now mocking as well. **"Because they remind you of what you want to become, martyrs, individuals that will try their best and still fail to return home, who will die due to circumstances beyond their control because of people that they will never even meet?!"**

Ruler didn't speak up against Avenger even though I felt like she wanted to but that was fine, _I_ didn't want her to. When it came to this I wanted to stand up for myself.

"I don't want to become my sisters. They were amazing, each and every one of them but they're not me and I'm not them. They helped me realize what I wanted to be and they gave me the determination to try to become it. I wouldn't have thought to try to become a Huntsman without them but that doesn't mean that I am trying to become a Huntsman because of them."

I felt like my answer didn't please Avenger but that didn't matter. This was my life and I wasn't going to change it just because someone else disapproved. If that was the case then I never would have started training in the first place. So I did what I did best: squared my shoulders and pushed on.

"If I didn't think that _I_ would be happy being a Hunter then I wouldn't have trained for so long to try to become one. I don't want to settle for being a farmer or a cook or something as meaningless as that! The thought of being a hero, of protecting humanity, of fighting alongside friends that I will have known for years and can trust entirely, of doing something absolutely and unquestionably _right_ gives me determination, a purpose that I won't abandon, and I can't imagine ever being anything else!"

By the time I was finished I had been shouting but I didn't care. This was important to me, something that was worth getting angry about, and I wasn't going to not stand up for myself, not when it came to this. I took a deep breath and steeled myself for whatever they would say. Several minutes passed before they spoke.

" _You wish to be a hero, someone that fights and risks their life so that others may live,"_ Ruler spoke as if she was remembering something that was pleasant but also the slightest bit painful.

" **And that and the comrades you will make gives you strength, determination,"** the scorn that had previously been in Avenger's voice was gone and in its place was a slightly pensive tone.

" _You said you could never be anything else and I believe you. To dedicate your life to others"_

" **It actually makes you happy. We can feel it, that happiness it brings you. It is rare for there to be something that saves others but brings yourself such joy as well."**

" _No matter what anyone else may say, a goal like that,"_

" _ **That is worth striving for!"**_

I didn't say anything because I couldn't say anything. I didn't think anything because my mind had ground to a halt, expecting ridicule but finding understanding. They got it. My parents didn't know why I tried so hard and they didn't want to. My younger sisters weren't in any way attracted to the idea of becoming Hunters and never seemed interested when I talked to them about me wanting to. My older sisters, JEWL, I think they would have understood but they weren't here. Even after hearing that, Avenger and Ruler they…

"So you think I can? You still think I can become a Huntsman?"

" **Ha. You have to ask? After what you just said?"**

" _You will become a Huntsman, Jaune."_

" **The best if we have anything to say about it."**

" _Nothing you have said so far has led us to think otherwise. If anything, I'm even more certain than before. We believe in you."_

I couldn't help it. I laughed. That felt wonderful, that belief that they had for me, _me_. If they could have faith in me then maybe…maybe I… I smiled and looked down to my sisters' statues. It was bright. Not my smile, or not just my smile, but everything. The statue, the clearing, everything around me was illuminated in a white light. What-

" _Jaune,"_

" **Your hands."**

I looked down at my hands and found the source of the light: me. My hands were glowing and I heard a sound that was like a tuning fork had been struck. I felt like, like what I had been feeling just a second ago was more here, more real somehow, as if it was filling me to the brim and wanted to burst out.

The light left my hands as quickly as it came and the clearing became silent again. I tried to will my hands to start shining again but that had about as much effect as if a normal person tried to make their appendages spontaneously glow. I thought back to why I had come here, and what Shirou had said earlier.

"Was-Do you guys think that was my Semblance?"

" _It very well could have been but none of us actually know what one looks like. We can ask Shirou tomorrow, he will likely have an idea."_

" **Do you think you can make it happen again?"**

I tried a few more times to bring back the light that had earlier covered the clearing just because Avenger had asked but nothing happened.

"No, it doesn't seem like it," I said apologetically.

" _Don't worry, I am sure that we can figure it out. We can ask Shirou for any more tips he might have later. For now, I believe we should head back. It is best to not have to navigate a forest in the dark if one can help it."_

Right. I stood up and said goodbye to my sisters before starting down the trail that led to my house. There was plenty of stuff to do and even if did want to try to get my Semblance to work right now I could wait if I had to. Besides, there was something else that was just as important that could be done at home.

* * *

"Goodnight, Jaune."

"Goodnight, Diana. Don't be like Cynthia, staying up all night reading, and actually go to bed."

I closed Diana's door and as I passed by Cynthia's I gave it a couple taps.

"Cynthia, don't pull a Cynthia and go to bed at a reasonable time, okay? Love you."

I heard a bit of a moan followed by what may have been 'Love you too'. I counted it as close enough and passed on to Coral's door.

"Goodnight, Coral." I said just loud enough to be heard and I caught her quiet 'Goodnight' in return.

I entered my room, changed into my onesie ( **"A rabbit. Really?"** ), and turned off the lights before laying down on the bed. I closed my eyes and focused on La Pucelle, my sword, my teachers, and, after tonight, maybe my friends too. After all, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet and I think that in terms of getting to know each other the day went pretty well. I concentrated on my sword and felt myself slip away.

When I opened my eyes it was to Ruler and Avenger in a world of flowers and empty rods with a golden sky overhead.

" _It's time for us to tell you a story. Shirou told us to inform you of his and you told us your own so it only seems right that we share with you ours. The first tale is of a man who, after countless battles and lifetimes of effort, finally attained salvation."_

" **The second is of a determined girl who felt a calling, who ventured out to war and tried to save thousands. She was put on trial and burned at the stake for being a witch as per the whims of people she would never even meet, and all of it because she claimed to hear the voice of God,"** Avenger spat those words with so much scorn that I couldn't help remembering what she said earlier in my sisters' clearing and how mocking she had sounded then.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who either of those stories was about nor did it take one to figure out how Avenger felt about the second. I took a breath to give myself a moment to think of a response.

"The second one doesn't sound like it had a happy ending."

Avenger didn't dignify that with a response beyond a scoff while she closed her eyes and leaned against one of the poles sticking from the ground while Ruler responded.

" _Not in the traditional sense of the term, no."_

"Do you…do you think we could change that?"

Avenger opened her eyes and turned her head towards me while Ruler gave me a small smile.

" _Don't worry, Jaune. In a way, you already have."_

 **Ending Notes:**

Jaune:

I have tried to make his Semblance as canon compliant as I can, looked at the only clues we have for it, Cardin's punch and its comparison to a shield, and made something that I think will be satisfactory. Also, there is a clue about what exactly was the trigger for the scene in the clearing and it is related to Jeanne.

This has been my head-canon for Jaune's backstory for a while and I have tried to make it believable. At the dance Jaune said he grew up with seven sisters, he seems to be pretty clueless about dating, and in the latest volume I still only see him talking about them in the past tense, although granted, Ruby asked a question about his sisters in present tense and he answered. Jaune is an _insanely_ fast learner, he went from untrained (V1) to able to fight on equal-footing with several genuine Huntsmen-in-training in the Vytal Tournament. There is no way that he would be like he was at the beginning of the series if his parents trained him at all so the believable thing is that they refused to train him and I think the easiest answer for why would be because they already lost people to that life.

In regards to him working so hard for four years and not giving up even though he doesn't see any improvement to becoming a Hunter, this is something I can totally see Jaune doing. I think Miles said that Jaune's biggest flaw is that he tries too hard and like he said earlier 'when it came to stupid, single-minded, persistence (Jaune) couldn't be beat!' He didn't know anything about Aura but he still had an idea of how strong the Grimm were so he thought he lived in a universe like One Piece where all he would have to do was train to become pre-time skip Zoro but it is actually more like Dragon Ball where the best you can hope for without Ki is Mr. Satan. If anyone is asking 'why is Jaune accepting all this help and not trying to do everything on his own?' I would say that his first speech on the rooftop only came about after spending enough time around other Hunters his age to feel inferior to leading him to think that the only way he could prove himself as worthy to his team and himself was to do everything on his own. Here he doesn't have that and he isn't going to compare himself to Shirou since he doesn't think that they are near the same age and he is very right. I am going to try to not write him angsting about trying so hard for no results since I don't really think that would be in-character. If I slip up and write something too edgy then write a review. Speaking of reviews.

Thank you to everyone that favorited, followed and reviewed the last chapter. All three categories more than doubled since the last chapter and I appreciate it. I wasn't really sure how the last chapter would pan out since it had a very different focus from the prologue but all the reviews were generally positive. I hope you enjoyed.

Don't forget to fav, follow, and review. Feedback is welcome and I definitely need it.


	4. Hero III

**Author's Note:** Not dead. This one took longer than expected, largely because I graduated college, got married, was hired as an intern, was then hired on to a fulltime position, and finally got FGO since it now has an English version. This one is a little on the short side but there should be another of similar length posted soon to make up for it.

I think I'll add Shirou to the character tags as well as Jeanne and then just edit the tags as the rest of JNPR are introduced since they are rather important at the moment and will likely remain so for some time.

Thanks to all who posted a review. I found them to be quite encouraging.

* * *

 **Resonance**

I woke up to the sound of my scroll's alarm. There were a few bleary moments where I didn't remember what had happened and life was simple. Then my brain decided to wake up as well and everything that had occurred yesterday shot to the front of my mind, particularly the stories Ruler and Avenger had told me.

Ruler and Avenger.

They probably didn't enjoy having to wait all night while I slept. I shouldn't keep them any longer.

'Hey, sorry you had to wait for me. Ready to start the day?'

…

Silence. Where was Ruler's sincere reply and Avenger's caustic…anything? The lack of voices in my head-screw the irony-it was terrifying. My heart sped up and dread settled in it like a heavy and jagged weight, every beat a stabbing pain in my chest.

'Avenger, Ruler!'

There was a pit opening before me, bottomless, and I could feel its pull, wanting me to return into it. Was none of it real, were all those things that seemed too good to be true just that? Yesterday had been the first time I had ever made any real advancement to becoming a huntsman in, well, ever, but what if it hadn't been? What if that day didn't occur? If that hadn't happened, if all of it was just a dream, then I…was I back to being…

My breaths were quick and shallow as I reached to the drawers next to my bed for the dagger that rested on top. I clumsily knocked it onto the floor before tumbling out after it. I grasped the handle, placed my hand on the wood boards, remembered the warm, protective feeling from the day before, and drove my knife down.

It skidded off an invisible barrier and was lodged up to its hilt in the floorboards.

" **What are you yelling for, you idiot? It is six in the morning. Learn some manners."**

I released a breath I didn't know I was holding and felt myself relax at Avenger's words.

'You were asleep? How does that even work?!'

" **How would I know?! I was raised the daughter of a farmer in fourteenth century France and none of the Grail Wars I have been a part of covered what to do if your soul sword was copied and then given to someone who synchronized with you from another dimension."**

The fact that I now had the context to understand that sentence brought me back to my first thought: Jeanne and Shirou.

I got up and began dressing myself for training while mentally going over last night's talk. After I had informed Ruler and Avenger about Grimm, they had given me a very long, very complicated speech about magical, wish-granting, hero-resurrecting artifacts and the journeys of a man who somehow absorbed a bunch of his own souls. They had told me their own tale of how they had fought in a war against their country's invaders, acting as a sort of literal divine intervention, before meeting an unfortunate end…and then being resurrected to fight for the aforementioned wish-granting devices as an overseer, an instrument of chaos, or something in between. Then, after dumping all of that on me, they told me to think on their words and ask any questions I may have in the morning.

I think that future-me would look back at that moment and say that that was when I had lost it…or maybe that would be when I tried to stab myself to see if my forcefield still worked.

I took in a deep, slow breath through my nose while I put my shoes on and tried to order my thoughts before catching sight of my dagger still lodged in the floor. I drew it out and slid it into my belt's sheath before I pulled my bed over to cover the mark it had left. With a bit of effort, the hole was hidden in the shadows underneath my mattress. It wasn't exactly _fixed_ but it was unlikely anyone would notice it, so good enough!

'Avenger? Ruler? Are you both up now?'

" _Yes. I assume you have questions."_

'You assume right! You guys came from an alternate Remnant, yeah? So, would it be possible to go back there and bring help if we needed it?' I began while going down the stairs, grabbing my bag, stepping out the front door, and beginning my run.

" _I don't think so. I think the initial travel was only possible because Shirou was so close to your world. He probably can't willfully travel to any other worlds."_

'That's fine, but if he is planning to stick around then why isn't he doing something bigger than just helping me become a huntsman?" Spending time helping a single person get stronger was great, but it was a little stupid when that time could instead be spent saving the world… "When he mentioned that he would have to leave for a quest, was that what he was going to be doing, something big for the world?'

" _I don't think so, but that is a question best saved for him."_

'Okay.' Disappointing, but I could wait a few minutes. 'What about your other weapons then, those banners you mentioned? Did Shirou not give those to me because he couldn't or because he doesn't think I'm ready to use them?'

" _Hmm,"_ Ruler began thoughtfully. _"I would say the first but perhaps the second as well. Noble Phantasms are crystallizations of a hero's legend and, as most legends show, they are normally only usable by one they acknowledge as a suitable wielder, such as Dyrnwyn, Caliburn, Gram, and Merodach. Even though you matched us, our banners represented a part of us that didn't quite fit,"_ she explained helpfully. _"Mine is a symbol of my sainthood and Avenger's is of her hatred. It should be apparent why neither of them is a match for you. Even if they were, the damage produced by La Grandement Du Haine and the protection of Luminosite Eternelle rely on the user's grudges and spiritual faith respectively. I do not mean to be rude, but they would be almost useless in your hands."_

That was a bit of a letdown. I had had this image in my head while I went to sleep of dual-wielding magical flags against a horde of enemies, remaining untouched by their attacks while raining fiery death down upon them. Still, just because that scenario was impossible was no reason to get depressed! I had the best weapon in the world with me, one that was good for a lot more than killing.

'Well, no reason to worry about it! I've got you two and I'll take that over magical flags any day!'

I smiled when I heard what was likely a small laugh from Ruler.

" _Thank you, Jaune, but I assure you that we weren't taking any offense. Were we, Avenger?"_

" **You're damn right I'm better than a flag. But, speaking of La Pucelle…"**

I frowned a little at what I knew she was leading to.

'…The ability you mentioned, its suicide attack.' I supplied hesitantly.

" _If you use it, then one or both of us would die,"_ Ruler took up softly. _"Whether that person is Avenger or I, we both reside in La Pucelle and as such are equally viable candidates."_

'I know, which is why I won't use it,' I replied with resolve. 'I won't sacrifice your life for my own.'

" **Our lives only have meaning with you in them!"** Avenger bit out harshly. **"This isn't some sentimental drivel. Our souls are joined together with yours, anchored here by your existence. If you pass from this world, then so do we. If it comes down to it, then save yourself at the cost of us; your death would be less than pointless!"**

I was a little surprised at how much she wanted me to potentially sacrifice her if necessary, but perhaps I shouldn't have been. It was their lives too, after all, and if I was in a situation where death was almost guaranteed, the use of the blade might let two of us survive at the cost of the third. Still, I didn't want such a cost to be needed in the first place.

'If it comes down to it…I'll try to find another way, one where I don't have to sacrifice anyone at all.'

Avenger was silent for a moment before I heard her scoff.

" **I see. Shirou is up ahead. We shouldn't keep him waiting."**

That wasn't a real response, but I guess I didn't need one. I went from a run to a sprint and stopped in front of Mr. Emiya while only a little out of breath.

"Good morning, Mr. Emiya," I greeted quickly as I set my bag down next to a tree, excited to start training with a bow. I didn't see one on him or anywhere around us but that probably wasn't a good indicator for whether he had one or not.

"Good morning, Jaune," he replied. "Before we begin, do you have any questions about what Ruler and Avenger told you last night?"

I paused for a moment and thought over my response.

The most obvious question was one I wasn't going to ask; if what they had told me, everything Ruler and Avenger had said about both him and themselves, was true. People normally tried to make lies believable and the story they told sounded _way_ too crazy to be false. Besides, asking if it was a lie would just insult them.

Whether it was true or false, I didn't think most of it mattered. Any of the parts that Ruler and Avenger were unsure about, planet spirits, human spirits, magic, all of it only mattered as much as it affected Jeanne and Mr. Emiya. All the details of his original world were only relevant _to_ that world _._ The question I had was very relevant to this one.

"Mr. Emiya, Ruler told me that you can't really leave here, um, leave Remnant! So, does that mean you will be trying to do things here?" Crap, wasn't explaining myself well again. It was time for elaboration!

"Like, the world you came from, Earth, didn't have any Grimm. Do you think it would be possible for our world to become like that? Or the kingdoms! Avenger said your world had a population of over ten billion people and dozens of countries. Maybe you could expand the kingdoms or even start a new one! Is that what you meant when you mentioned that you would be leaving eventually, going off to try and save the world? I mean, if it is then it-it means a lot that you would put that off to train me…" I trailed off a little before continuing. "But you don't need to feel obligated or anything with everything on the line! Although, you did just come from being the hero of one world, and that must have been pretty exhausting so if you want to take a break before becoming the hero of another one that's fine too I-I guess…" I finished in what was barely a mumble. He stared at me for a moment, and I cleared my throat a little, partly to end the silence but also to show that I was finished with my string of questions.

"Well," Shirou began as he raised a hand to his chin, "not exactly."

"To which question?"

"All of them. I am probably going to limit my influence since I won't be on Remnant very long." He must have seen the confusion on my face as he quickly continued. "I can't leave this world myself, but that doesn't mean that someone else can't take me. Did they tell you about my time in the Root?"

"You summoned and absorbed your alternate future selves who had enslaved themselves to the will of humanity before faking your own death to partially ascend to a separate plane of existence to give freedom to your copies that wanted it?" Good gods, it sounded even crazier when it was spoken out loud.

"Correct." He easily nodded at my explanation of such a confusing situation. "I wasn't entirely sure whether the ascension part would work or not. If it hadn't, I would have just gone back to my world and continued living for another decade to ensure the continuation of my legend before allowing myself to pass on. The point is that I now partially reside in the Throne of Heroes. As such I am a viable candidate to be summoned in hundreds of alternate Grail Wars. Even if I could resist a summoning, I would not want to. The Grail Wars were always potentially world ending events and in most of them where some version of myself was summoned he was essential in ensuring that that potential remained unrealized. That is the mission that I will have to leave this world for, the quest to which I can only consent."

I think I felt a headache coming on. I could do this. I just had to soldier on, and get it all out of the way!

"Okay, do you know how long you will be here? Days, weeks, months, years?"

He leaned back against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes. After a few moments, he opened them again and responded.

"Months, most likely, probably around five but it could be more, it could be less. I took in quite a few alternate selves and it is a bit hard to say how long each spent under Alaya and the frequency each was summoned, but I think that should be accurate."

"But that's a lot of time!" I couldn't help but shout out. "You of all people could make a lot of difference in five months."

"I plan to." Shirou pushed off the tree and began to walk towards me. "I'll try to set up a warning system in any towns close enough so that we could assist them if they are attacked. That's not going to do much though, probably just give you some combat experience and maybe save a village if they are particularly unlucky."

"Regarding what you asked about the kingdoms, their expansion is already limited, from what I understand. They each have natural barriers at their boarders: the mountains of Vale, the mountains, waters, and cliffs of Mistral, the sand dunes of Vacuo. Each feature protects their kingdom's boarders but prevent the expansion of those boarders. That is why they have to invest in distant settlements like Mountain Glenn."

"As for a new kingdom…" he stopped walking and placed a hand on his chin. "A new nation would require infrastructure, easy access to resources, and people to fill it. How would you describe the conditions of most villages outside of the kingdoms?"

"I guess most towns outside of the kingdoms' walls are supposed to be pretty sparsely populated. They have access to enough resources to meet their needs but the surrounding land wouldn't be able to handle a kingdom's population," I supplied after thinking about it for a moment. "Technology wise, they are normally a bit behind the kingdoms as well."

Shirou nodded as if I had just proven his point.

"Right. The small amount of resources most villages have would make turning one into a kingdom rather difficult. Starting a kingdom entirely from scratch would be worse. Even if I found a location or records of a site with a high amount of available resources, could defend and erect barriers around an area as large as a kingdom in an incredibly short timeframe, and build homes and factories inside it, I would still have difficulty filling them. I can't imagine people would be anything but hesitant to move from the nearly overpopulated but somewhat safe kingdoms and towns to a vacant and unfamiliar territory, especially with the success rate of the last few settlement attempts."

He plucked a pebble from the ground and tossed it up into the air. On its downward path, it disappeared and then reappeared directly above where it had been before, having travelled through a portal, and it began to accelerate in a continuously falling loop.

"If I were going to cause a great deal of change I would use my portals to connect the four kingdoms, and perhaps Menagerie, to each other as well as to any known resources that are currently too isolated to be easily gathered. Ideally, transportation costs would plummet, multinational military strikes against the Grimm could be more easily coordinated, industry would increase and, if everything was carefully supervised, cultural and racial acceptance would improve as well. After enough time, once the kingdoms became used to the new gateways and had taken advantage of them, I would open a series of portals to an ideally positioned location on which to build a new settlement. Support and military defense could easily be given to the new kingdom by all the others, helping it flourish and its success would likely set a precedent for the establishment of more of such settlements."

A look of contemplation and longing flitted across Shirou's face for a moment before he closed his eyes and gave a small sigh.

"The problem is, if I am only here for less than a year, I can't do any of that. People likely wouldn't become used to the gateways so quickly and, even if they did, they would lose them when I leave. The panic such a thing could cause may draw the Grimm and leave the world in a worse condition than it currently is."

I guess that sort of made sense. Suddenly giving the world an advantage like that and then just as suddenly having to take it away could cause a lot of panic. At the same time, there were other ways one could help the world.

"What about materials, machine diagrams, or other energy sources?" I went on. Despite what Avenger may have said, I wasn't a complete idiot. I had passed each of my science and history classes and I knew that the primary reason for Remnant's current success was the CCT network. If Shirou had the blueprints or general knowledge of any innovations or discoveries that could rival _that_ , then they could be given to the kingdoms and used even after he was gone. The people from his world had done a lot of things that, as far as I knew, Remnant couldn't replicate. They had even travelled to space! "Are there any materials like super strong and light metals, advanced fabrics, or perfect conductors that you know of that could benefit Remnant, or maybe machine schematics? Your world didn't have Dust as an energy source so what did you use?"

"There are," Shirou easily acknowledged, "but your world is specialized, incredibly so, around the use of Dust. Most of the advanced metals that I know how to craft are created or altered in some way through supernatural means that your world can't replicate." The two portals disappeared and they took the pebble with them. "Of the mundanely fashioned variety, I still have a good selection, but their utility isn't as great as you would think," he continued. "The variety of Dust-based metals that your society favors are a match for most of my own mundanely crafted ones, so I don't think I would be of much help there.

"I know _of_ several machines that may benefit your world," he went on. "Satellites, machines placed in orbit around a planet to relay information, would be a great boon. Vehicles that allow for interplanetary travel might not be immediately useful, but would come in handy under certain situations. Solar panels, wind turbines, advanced agricultural production methods, there are a variety of things that _would_ be incredibly helpful but I don't have the knowledge of how to create them beyond a basic awareness of how they function. I know that they are possible and have a general understanding of how they work but I wouldn't know where to begin on replicating them.

"Energy is where your world is most overly focused. The only power source widely used seems to be Dust and, from what I can tell, there's a good reason for that." I gave a nod, easily understanding what he meant. The amount of energy that fire Dust produced compared to something like coal, or lightning Dust to the daily output of a dam's generator was supposed to be entirely incomparable. With the enormous number of situations that it could fill thanks to the many varieties available, Dust was, hands down, the best energy source Remnant had to offer. "It was difficult for my world to adapt to different energy sources than what they were used to and that was with the disparity between them being significantly smaller and the drawbacks of the currently used ones being a lot larger."

"And what about the Grimm?" I asked, hoping he had some insight into how to deal with them. "Your world didn't have any, do you think such a thing would be possible for my world as well?"

He looked momentarily conflicted as if he was unsure where to start before he took up the lecturing pose from yesterday and began.

"Well, saying that my world doesn't have Grimm so your world one day might not have them is a little off. Our constellations don't match, nor do our continents, and your moon, leaving aside the fact that it is somehow _shattered,_ seems to have a different rotation than my own."

"But what about language?" I gave, pointing out something that we clearly shared. "That's a pretty big thing that we have in common…unless you're using translation magic or something?" I asked while eyeing him questioningly.

"I'm not," the redhead admitted with an amused smile, "but language, contrary to what one would expect, isn't really a good indication of shared history, at least, not where different dimensions are concerned. An acquaintance of mine that was a bit of an expert on the subject said that all versions of humanity start off speaking the same language that is eventually lost over time, but that it also has the same derivations even if they went through different processes to get there. Back to the Grimm though..."

Shirou ran a hand through his hair and gave a small sigh.

"Soulless, bone-armored, red and black monsters that don't seem to have any definite source sound about as unnatural as they come but I don't know how I would put an end to them. They are produced in a seemingly endless manner and no one has ever noticed any changes in their overall population. Maybe your world naturally produces Grimm, maybe humanity does so themselves when they experience negative emotions, maybe someone or something is making them. For all I know, their source could be a pale, monstrous woman that is birthing them from a horrid black sludge while seeking to overthrow humanity and create a new world for her creations."

…I felt like that last statement could use some context.

" **Where we came from, there was a beast named Tiamat that sought to drown the world in a black mud and from it produce a new one for her and all of her children."**

'Oh. Thanks.'

That was sort of interesting but not actually important…five months.

"So…why did you come here, to Remnant? You decided to train me after you saw my dagger but why did you come here in the first place if you weren't going to be able to change anything?"

"I came here because I owed Jeanne at least that much." Shirou had a far-off look in his eyes as he spoke. "Ruler and Avenger had been two of the major reasons why some of my counterparts remained sane. The rest of my living weapons either didn't care where we went or desired to go to a location that I was almost guaranteed to reach through the Grail Wars. Ruler and Avenger, however, felt drawn to this place. Drawn to you, and that's _already_ changed everything. You have the determination to try when everything seems against you, the guidance of two great heroes, and the time for all your efforts to bear fruit thanks to the current peace among the kingdoms. The two of us meeting and you bonding with La Pucelle has already altered things in ways that are both big and small."

I thought of my Aura and how good it was to have people, friends, that I could trust with my thoughts and feelings, and I couldn't help but agree.

"The changes may seem trivial now, but they'll have an enormous impact. You've changed, and through you I'm sure that Remnant will be changed as well."

Shirou gave me a smile full of confidence with a hint of something like anticipation, like he wanted to see how much I would grow. He really believed that. He believed that I could change the world, that such a thing was assured even. How did he do that? How could anyone just…?

I summoned La Pucelle to my hands and examined it for a moment. I didn't feel any doubt from Ruler and Avenger either. I wasn't sure if I would have even if there was, but after last night I was sure that they had at least as much certainty in me as Shirou did. I stared at my reflection in the flat of the blade and lowered it to my side to meet the man's eyes once again and give my enthusiastic agreement.

"Right!" I felt a little smile slip onto my lips as a warm feeling filled my chest and the world looked a little bit brighter because of it. "You three believe in me so-"

"Jaune…" Shirou cut in. There was a questioning tone in my male instructor's voice as he looked down at the sword in my hand and I lowered my own gaze to it as well. I dropped La Pucelle in shock, and it was planted blade first in the dirt with its pummel facing the sky. It wasn't the sword that was out of the ordinary though. It was me.

Just like last night, my hands were encased in light.

"You awoke your Semblance?" If I had missed the surprise in his words, then his raised eyebrows would have shown his shock just as well.

Had I forgotten to mention that earlier? I had had a lot of other questions for him that had all seemed important, and I guess the incident from last night had been pushed to the back of my mind. Well, better late than never.

"Um, yeah. It did the same thing yesterday while I was talking to Ruler and Avenger. I sort of forgot about it what with everything that was going on." The glow faded as I spoke and was gone before I finished.

Mr. Emiya gave a hum of acknowledgement and walked over, taking my hand by the wrist and turning it over as if looking for any changes that may have taken place.

"That was fast. Much faster than I was expecting," he explained while examining me intensely. "I thought that would take at least a month and that was with hoping that the process of discovering it would be expedited since you are older than your sisters were when they awoke their Auras and found their Semblances."

He gave me my hand back and took a contemplative stance before nodding.

"This is good. The expression of one's soul will often take the form of something that is very influential to their personal fighting style. Speaking from experience, someone with super strength may try using a heavier weapon while being able to ignore an opponent's defenses and favor blocks to parries, or someone with super speed might use something with enough weight to not get caught easily due to the force behind it, perhaps with a long edge capable of catching their foes as they run by. If we can find yours now then we won't have to make corrections later. What did you feel when you were glowing? Stronger, lighter, more aware of your surroundings, anything like those?"

"I don't think so," I confessed after thinking it over. "I felt sort of happy and content, I guess? It was like…" I tried to think of when I had felt something similar and found an example surprisingly quickly thanks to how recently it had been. "A bit like when my Aura was awakened yesterday."

He gave a thoughtful nod before continuing with his questions.

"Were you feeling those things before or only after? When you say warm, do you mean like a heat, perhaps a flame or a spark?"

"Um, I think I was feeling happy before but maybe even more so after? Not a flame but a bit like soft clothes or the blankets wrapped around you after a good night's sleep?"

" **You definitely don't make things easy for us, do you?"** Avenger cut in.

'You try explaining a vague sensation you have only briefly felt twice when you weren't expecting it or focusing on it because you had suddenly become a human-flashlight,' I responded.

"Okay," the only voice outside of my mind began and I turned my attention away from Avenger. "The feelings are probably some kind of trigger and we can try to find out the exact mechanics of it this afternoon. You probably already know this, but don't try to experiment with your Semblance around anyone else. While it may not be likely, there is a chance that someone could be hurt if they were nearby while you practice."

I nodded, having already decided not to do such a thing last night. If my Semblance was super strength or the ability to fire laser beams from my hands, then any use of it around others would be dangerous at best and life-ending at worst. I wanted to be a hero, I wouldn't let some stupid mistake early on make me more in line with a villain.

"Anything else that might have slipped your mind?"

'Ruler, Avenger?'

" _I think that was everything."_

" **Yep."**

"That's it."

"Good. That means we can get started. I'll try to teach you the bare basics of archery today." He reached his hand out to his side and it disappeared for a moment before he drew it back with a strung bow in his grip. He tossed it to me and I took half a step back to make sure I didn't fall as I caught it. It landed in the palm of my hand and seemed to fit there perfectly.

The weapon was long. It had to be as tall as I was, taller if it was unstrung. It was thin with a sheen that reminded me of polished silver. Just above my hand, on the inside of the bow, there was an engraving of two crescents: the symbol of the Arc family. Aside from that, there was not a single mark on it and I think that only improved its appearance; it was elegant in its simplicity.

"It's nothing special," Shirou commented as he handed me a matching quiver. "The draw weight should be enough for even your Aura-enhanced strength, an arrow fired from it should carry enough force to pierce a Grimm's skull, and, if your aim is true, it won't miss. That being said, I just made it from some spare materials I found around your town last night. Don't get too attached to it; it is just a stand-in for the one I will make you later."

I looked down at the bow I had in my hand and admired its shine as I plucked the string. He considered this only good enough to be a stand-in? I slung the quiver over my shoulders and it fit naturally onto my back. I looked to Shirou and he gestured towards one of the trees a small distance off to be my first target. I took an arrow and brought it to my bow. I fidgeted with it for a few seconds until it was resting just above my hand and close to perfectly centered before I pulled back and aim-

"No," Shirou interrupted and my fingers slipped, prematurely loosing the arrow. It sailed past the tree and out of sight into the woods beyond. "You do not aim after you have pulled the string back. Doing so requires that you exert more force to keep it steady which will reduce your accuracy. You already know your target so you should have already aimed before you have even grabbed an arrow; when you draw the bow, draw it into a position in which your shot will already be directed at the target. Also, when you pull your hand back it should be closer to your jaw or ear. Those are your anchoring points, not mid-chest. Your arms should be used to steady the bow only, not supply all the force needed to use it. The real muscles you will be using come from your back. Try again."

As he spoke, he prodded different areas of my upper body to show where I had gone wrong. I nodded and looked to the tree again. I saw a small knot where a branch had once been midway up its trunk with a center that vaguely reminded me of a bull's-eye. It was easy enough to pick out but would be difficult to hit. Perhaps it was too small of a target for my first try…

"Aim small, miss small," the archer next to me continued, having followed my line of sight. "If you think that all you need to do is hit a tree, then your body relaxes. It allows for more error since you have such a large target and you become more likely to miss. When you are aiming at your enemy and trying to kill, don't aim for just its head. Don't aim for just the marks on the center of its skull's skeletal plating. Aim for the small speck of dust in the center of its eye and loose your shot when it has no chance to block _or_ when the act of blocking itself serves your purposes." He once more looked at me and nodded. "Again."

I refocused on my target, not the small knot I had seen before, but its very center inside the raised bark where the wood seemed to have split from being exposed to the air. I took aim, drew back, and loosed.

It didn't strike the target, not the one I had been aiming for. The shot landed a foot to the left and below of where I had intended, almost missing the tree entirely. I looked at where I had hit and compared it to where I had been aiming and firmed my resolve.

I had a goal.

I _would_ reach it.

* * *

 **Ending Notes:**

Personally, this chapter felt a little too expository for my liking, but I feel that it had to happen now as the questions asked are things that Jaune would want an immediate answer to. It also lets me answer some of the reviews I've been given concerning why Shirou wouldn't directly change everything: it's not because he doesn't have the capability per se, but because he doesn't have the time.

Besides that, the main things covered were a brief state of the world, NP information, and the beginning of Jaune's practice with the bow. I am in no way an expert archer and all the information I found on the sport comes from the internet, so feel free to mention in a review if I got something wrong.

Surprisingly enough, the Nasuverse apparently already has someone who faked their own death and ascended to the Throne of Heroes while still being alive: François Prelati, the teacher of Fate/Zero's Caster. I had no idea that was a thing when I started this, but the summoning and how it affects the living copies will be handled differently.

Don't forget to fav, follow, and review. Feedback is welcome, and I definitely need it.


	5. Hero IV

**Author's Note:** And here is the other chapter I promised as a Christmas present to you all. Happy holidays!

 **Resonance**

I took aim, drew, and loosed. The bow's string sung by my ear as it was released and I felt the wind of its passing caress my cheek. The arrow swiftly soared to my target and struck just slightly to its left, a few inches shy of precision. It was the best start I had yet had on a new tree, but I knew that it was quite a lucky shot.

Advancement in my archery didn't seem to occur quickly. I had emptied the whole quiver and hadn't hit the original knot's center. A few of the arrows had even gone too far to the sides and passed the tree entirely. When I finally did hit my target, more luck than anything else, Shirou had me switch to a different one on a different tree. I didn't immediately hit that one either. After another quiver, I struck it, mostly luck again, and the process then repeated itself a dozen more times.

I had yet to hit the target on my first try, but, even so, I _did_ improve. By the end of our session, my shots were much less spread out. Where before it would have taken a circle as tall as one of my sisters to hold all my arrows, now it would take one only a little under half that size to do the job.

"That's enough for today," Shirou surmised as he went forward to gather the arrows after I had emptied the quiver once again. He had done so every time before, but this time he took the arrows, the quiver, and the bow from my hand and, in less than a second, they were gone.

"So, how did I do?" I asked, both wanting to know how I compared to others and simultaneously fearing how short of them I may have fallen.

"You weren't bad," he commented while walking over to the most recent tree I had been using as target practice and placing his hand on it. The holes where my arrows had pierced it were gone a moment later and he walked back. "While you certainly have room to improve, you have had a better start than most of those your age that I practiced with. I would say that you have enough focus, determination, and perhaps talent to become proficient with the bow. While you aren't quite as able as I was, that is a rather high bar to clear."

"How good were you when you started out?" I inquired, a little curious.

He looked as if he was contemplating something for a moment before answering with a reassuring smile.

"I didn't make every shot I fired in my first year of school. I also missed the target's center. Once."

Before I could think on how ridiculous that statement was, Shirou grabbed La Pucelle from where I had planted- **"Dropped."** -it in the ground before our session began and handed it to me.

"The bow you have is in no way a match for your sword. We can begin the process of making one that is once you have become proficient enough with both weapons. We could purchase the materials we need from vendors or shops, but the value of a piece is often determined by the work put into it." He spoke with surety in his voice, as if such a thing was obvious. Perhaps he wasn't even speaking figuratively, for all I knew, magic might actually take something like that into account. "And you could use some practical experience. As such, we shall make a journey of it. I'll try to find records on mines that have been previously abandoned due to them being attacked by Grimm as well as other types of material deposits. We'll travel to them to get what we need."

"If the mines were overrun by Grimm, wouldn't there still be Grimm in them?" I interrupted, pointing out a potential flaw in the plan.

"I hope so. Plenty of experience with fighting in near total darkness while almost certainly outnumbered against foes with superior senses. When we gather the materials, I'll try to make it so we can go to a variety of locations so that you can gain experience with the different environments surrounding each of them."

Ah. In his mind, that wasn't a flaw at all. If anything, it was a highly appealing feature.

"That, I will try to have accomplished within only a few months. If there is still enough time remaining after, we can look for whatever elements are needed for crafting anything else to supplant you in combat: shields, armor, daggers, lances, a bike, whatever works."

Honestly, this whole trip sounded a little terrifying…but also like everything I had ever wanted.

"Thank you, Mr. Emiya." He reached up to scratch the side of his cheek as I heard a small sound in my head like someone had lightly coughed and I suppressed a small laugh.

'Thanks, Avenger. Thanks, Ruler.'

" **I was just clearing my throat, but we do deserve your gratitude, what with us having to make sure you don't kill yourself doing something stupid. You're lucky you have us to watch your back."**

" _I think that we're also lucky to have him as a student. Wouldn't you agree?"_

I heard some slightly begrudged grumbling before I focused back on the physical world.

"Sorry, but if there isn't anything else, then I should head out," I informed my teacher as I noticed the time on my scroll. Shirou gave a sympathetic nod and a wave before I grabbed my bag from where I had put it down earlier and set off on a run to Anthem proper.

"I'll see you later to start working on my Semblance!" I called back with a grin and I heard him give a distant goodbye of his own as I continued my sprint while thinking over our session. It had gone well, better than I expected even. It was…nice, having people who had faith in me and were willing to devote time to help me reach my goals. The three of them believed in me, I could-

" **Hey, where are we going?"**

'Oh, sorry, I guess I never told you. I'm headed off to school.'

" _I thought you weren't in a combat school. Wasn't that why you were training, in hopes of getting into a hunter academy?"_

'I'm not in a combat school but that doesn't mean I can just skip out on my education. I go to a normal, civilian high school since I still need to learn the basics.'

" _When does it start?"_

'Bit under an hour from now, but I have to get there, shower, and change clothes. It's around three miles away so almost twenty minutes are spent just on the run.'

" _And what of the classes?"_

'Six: two electives, Science, Language, History, and Math.' I thought I felt something like an emotional shudder from them both but ignored it and moved on. 'Counting lunch that makes it around seven hours long.'

" _And what did you take for your optional classes?"_

'Study Hall and Music. The first helps me finish most of my work in school and the second…'

" **What, did you wish to become a minstrel if your goal of becoming a huntsman fell through?"**

I felt a little embarrassed as I exited the last of the woods to some minor farm.

'Not…exactly.'

" **Oh?"** There was way too much interest placed in that one syllable but I continued regardless.

'Well, you know all those tales about heroes singing battle songs, wooing princes and princesses, or playing an instrument around campfires or at celebrations?" I began, thinking back on all the fairytales and epics that I had heard as a child. "When I was younger, I sort of thought that being able to play an instrument may be something combat schools might look for in future students and I figured I could use all the help I could get so…'

I heard a snort of amusement and a far more subdued sound that probably came from Ruler. It was a little hard to tell the difference between them when they weren't speaking as I mainly used their tones and choice of words to guess who was talking. I was at least grateful they weren't outright laughing or saying how stupid I had been. I had done plenty of the latter when I had realized that no amount of musical ability would make up for my nonexistent combat skill. By then, I had already been in too long to give up and had found that I liked the guitar enough to continue, so something sort of positive came out of it.

" **I suppose that could become useful for if we ever need to disguise ourselves as a wandering entertainer."**

" _There are certainly worse skills one could have, although I am unsure if such a disguise would stand out less or more."_

" **Bite me."**

" _Does it have any bearing on getting into the school you spoke of?"_ Ruler continued, easily ignoring her counterpart.

'Beacon? Not really. I think that they prefer an involved elective or two over nothing but it doesn't matter much. Grades are more important, but combat ability is what they're really looking for. Having actually gone to one of the combat prep schools would have been best, but, seeing as I haven't, I'll just have to make do.'

" _Why did you not attend one if it would have been such an immense help to you?"_

'It wasn't really an option,' I began while remembering all the reasons that had kept me in Anthem. 'For one, the academies are almost all relatively close to one of the four kingdoms, way too far for me to travel on foot, and Anthem's Bullhead pilot is an old friend of my parents. He's been ferrying them across Anima and even to Sanus and Solitas, two of Remnant's other continents, since before I was born. He would've known something suspicious was happening if I just showed up for a trip without having been told about it from them first. I've also looked up the preparatory school in Vale, and even though it doesn't require prior combat experience for first years they still prefer it.'

I would've sighed if I hadn't been running. As I was, however, I just picked up my pace a little as I passed some sparsely placed houses.

'Even ignoring both of those _tiny_ details, say the academy accepted me and even arranged for pickup and transport, I would have only been fourteen at the time: a minor. I still would have needed my parents' permission to attend, and that is something neither of them would have given. So, I had to manage with just physical training.'

" _Would any of those issues still apply to you now?"_

'Not really, or at least not as much. The next village over has a working airship that is supposed to make frequent trips to Vale and there's a group of merchants that usually travels through here a few weeks before Beacon's initiation. I talked to several of them and they agreed to let me hitch a ride with them for a small fee. The trip shouldn't be too dangerous, but it's best to be careful.' A thought came to me of how my current situation changed things, and I smiled. 'Now that I have Aura, I could probably make the journey to the other village myself after a few months of proper training. As for my parents' approval, I won't even need it since I'll be seventeen by then.'

" **What about tuition?"**

'Beacon doesn't require any. They aren't going to _charge_ their students for training to protect the kingdoms. Books, classes, room, and board are free to those who pass the entrance exams and they even give a weekly allowance for us to do with as we wish.'

" **Makes sense. Based on what you've said, huntsman and huntresses seem to be purported as heroes by your society. I imagine it would be in the kingdoms' best interests to keep those studying to become hunters happy and content to maintain such an image,"** Avenger mused aloud.

'I think of it more as a reward for choosing to dedicate and risk one's life for the sake of humanity…'

" _That seems like it would be quite nice."_

'Yeah, JEWL always made it sound really cool. The hard part is getting in. There's a practical exam that Beacon offers to students that didn't go to a preparatory academy and I can probably pass the academic portion without too much trouble but it's the combat portion that would destroy me.'

" **That would utterly destroy you** _ **now**_ **."**

'Yeah, thanks for the "utterly", Avenger. I really needed that.'

" _The 'now' is what's important, Jaune. The exam is not now, it is in almost a year."_

" **Indeed. When it arrives, it is you who shall be dealing the destruction. You shall decimate it as thoroughly as we did the Duke of Bedford. I doubt the Grimm can read and it would be impractical to write them a letter, but make sure to deliver a quip suitably witty and dramatic before and after you kill them."**

'I guess I could try…Oh, oh! How about "The Arc knight has seized the victory! It was foolish of the Grimm to charge so recklessly to their deaths!"'

"… _We have an entire year to make improvements."_

" **We'll need the entire year."**

'You don't like it? I thought it was pretty good. I mean, I guess I could use "doom" instead of "death" but improving it beyond that might be difficult.'

I heard chuckling in my head and I couldn't help but smile, even if the laughter was directed a little at me. The buildings had become more tightly packed and I could see the school up ahead.

'You guys won't have any problems sitting through class with me, will you?'

" _Actually, I am looking forward to it. I have never had to attend school before and, while I cannot speak for Avenger, I think it may be a pleasant experience."_

" **Yes, the…friends we will meet and the interactions we have will be rather interesting. I am quite eager."**

"… _That was a suspicious way to phrase that."_

" **The important thing is that we're all in agreement!"**

'Right!' I acknowledged, happy that everyone was on board.

* * *

I walked out of school at the end of the day, while I waved goodbye to a few friends and classmates. I turned away from the building and began my run back to the area where Shirou and I trained.

'I think that went pretty well! Didn't speak to you guys out loud, conversations were normal, and I didn't accidentally break anything with my Aura. How did the two of you like it?' I asked after several minutes.

" _It was certainly acceptable. I have no complaints regarding the faculty and all of the subjects, excluding math, weren't too bad."_

"…"

'And what about you, Avenger?'

"…"

'Avenger? Is something wrong?'

I heard her breathe in and out in a slow and deliberate manner like she was trying to calm herself before she spoke.

" **Jaune, I am disappointed in you."**

'Huh? Why? What did I do?'

" **It is not what you did, but rather what you have not already done!"**

"… _oh no."_ The amount of dread in Ruler's voice was very concerning but Avenger went on regardless.

" **Your grades were good, you seemed to get along with plenty of people and you talked to us whenever you had the chance, as you should."**

" _This is what you were taking about earlier, wasn't it?"_

" **But there is one aspect of your school life that is absolutely unacceptable!"**

" _Please don't, he will never be able to look at us the same if you do!"_

'What is it?' I couldn't help but ask in a strange mix of curiosity and fear.

" **You. Did not have. A h-"**

" _HIGH SCHOOL DEBUT!"_ Ruler loudly interrupted in a panicked voice, cutting off whatever it was Avenger was saying.

" **What? No, a-"**

" _A high school debut is the transference of a student from middle to high school!"_ She continued, rushing past whatever it was her counterpart was saying. _"As they are going to be meeting an entirely new social group, a lot of whom would have no knowledge of the student as they were before their first day, they are free to remake themselves in whatever image they desire, leaving behind any embarrassing accidents or awkward habits as they transition to a new area. It is a perfect time to make a good first impression and have yourself be seen in whatever manner you desire! Perhaps Avenger was looking forward to the three of us all meeting new people together!"_

'Um, I'm already in my last year of high school? I mean, I guess we'll be meeting new people at Beacon, but that's more of a college.'

" _College debut, then. Moving to a school like Beacon would be a perfect opportunity for such a thing! It would be an optimal time for new beginnings and the start of new relationships! Don't you agree, Avenger?"_

I heard a small hum in my mind and I could tell she was considering something very deeply. **"Perhaps you are right. He isn't ready yet. If we wait until Beacon, then I have a year to change that."**

'…What are you talking about, Avenger?'

" **I was just thinking about the many, many friends that I will be able to help you make."**

'Okay. Why was that so embarrassing, Ruler?'

" _I…um…"_

" **Perhaps, she didn't want you to feel like we were trying to push our customs onto you? Such a thing would be quite rude of us."**

'Oh. I don't know if Remnant has the same term, but I guess that's sort of a thing here, too. I remember a few people acting and dressing a bit differently after they got to high school.' Something still felt a little off. Maybe… 'Are you sure that's-?'

" _ **Duck!"**_

The previous question was struck from my mind by something solid impacting my face. It smelled of wood polish and leather, a scent I recognized immediately from yesterday's sparring session. The almost instinctual feeling of fear that accompanied it didn't hurt either.

I completed a full spin from the force of the blow before stopping myself and observing my opponent. The practice sword from yesterday was now a spear with a cushioned tip that had just struck the side of my jaw. That was as far as my observations got before he stepped forward and lunged for my chest.

I slipped my backpack off my left shoulder and manifested La Pucelle in my right hand. I momentarily panicked when I found myself with blade in one hand and bag in the other, so I improvised and threw the bag at Shirou's face.

It was as effective as could be expected and didn't slow him down at all as he moved his spear tip up to deflect the bag before slamming it into the side of my sword. I braced myself against him and pushed, trying to get some space to move. Space I was given as I was suddenly pushing against nothing at all as he flipped his spear and jammed the butt of it into my hands before twisting it in such a way that I instinctively opened my fingers, allowing my weapon to slip away.

Disarmed as I was, Shirou lunged with his staff for another stab, this one directed at the center of my chest. My hands wouldn't be enough to stop the blow, and, even if they were, if this was an actual battle with _real_ weaponry, then all that becoming accustomed to blocking a blade with my bare hands would get me was grievously injured. I needed my sword, I needed-

…!

I thought 'shift' twice and pushed up, catching his spear with La Pucelle's cross guard, my fingers firmly wrapped around its handle once more.

" **Watch your footing!"**

Most of my weight was on my backfoot from when I tried to retreat from his thrusts to gain distance and, before I could correct it, Shirou swept my right leg out from under me. I caught myself on one knee but his weapon was already at my throat.

"Not bad," the spear-user appraised after a moment as he extended his hand to help me up. "Good improvisation with your backpack, that might have worked on a Grimm or a less skilled opponent, but you need to continue being mindful of your base. It was good of you to remember to spiritualize La Pucelle, the blade is an extension of you: body, mind, and soul." He continued while I took his hand and he pulled me up. "It cannot be separated from you any more than the sky can be split from the earth. As for additional critique…" He stepped back and thrust his spear to the side. "Polearms have a longer reach than an average blade and as such excel at midrange combat."

"So, the best thing to do is to get in close?" I guessed, seeing the problem with trying to retreat when I had a shorter weapon.

"The best thing to do is to take them out from long range with either a bullet or an arrow, but, in lieu of those options, getting in close works too. If you can deal damage to your opponent and they can't deal damage to you, you win. The reverse is also true."

"Got it. Should we keep going?" I asked, preparing my stance, feet set apart and my blade between us in a ready position.

"No, that was just to assess your reactions. I thought that it would be prudent to see what you remembered from our previous training session and that you wouldn't be expecting a surprise attack today which made it the _perfect_ day for a surprise attack. Right now, like I said earlier, you're going to be trying to gain control of your Semblance." His spear disappeared in sparks of light as he once more took up a teaching pose while I relaxed my stance, ready to begin mastering my ability. I focused as intently as I could on his words as this was something I had been looking forward to all day: Shirou explaining how to control my glowy-hand thing…I would find a better name for it later.

"Now I only know what I am going to tell you from what your father told your sisters. I can only say what he said and can't really specify more than I already am." I nodded to show that I understood. I would have the same instruction my sisters had and that would be enough. I would make it enough. "Now, some of the advice is unneeded since you've already _used_ your Semblance twice before, albeit unwillingly, so now you just need to gain conscious control of it, so here goes.

"That feeling you felt before, you need to recognize it, understand it, and accept it. These are the first steps to gaining insight into the matters of one's soul and the sooner we know your Semblance, the sooner we can account for it in future sessions. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Good. Do whatever you feel would be best to enter the mindset you had earlier. I will be over here if you need me." With his instruction finished, Shirou walked over to the shade of a nearby tree and sat down.

That was it? Honestly, I had been expecting something a little more elaborate than that.

I dispelled my blade, found my own shade, and sat beneath it while trying to become as relaxed as possible. I took several slow, deep breaths, and my pulse that had risen due to the run and the sudden spar began to slow. I tried to remember the circumstances of when my Semblance had manifested before just as I had been doing on the way to and during school. A vague idea had begun to form. There was something there, conditions that both situations had in common that I don't think anyone else could see.

" _Any thoughts on where to start?"_

'I…I think so.'

" **Really?"**

'Yeah. There's this thing my dad says that sort of helped me with the idea. I mean, he meant it for picking up girls, but I think it works here too.' That was _not_ the best way to explain myself. I started over.

'You two said that you believe in me, that you think I can get into Beacon, can become a huntsman and then a hero, someone who can make a real, positive difference in the world. Mr. Emiya said the same. Both last night and this morning, I was either told or shown how much faith each of you has in me.'

I lifted my hands so that they were directly in my line of sight. They had already shone twice and, before our hour was up, they _would_ do so again.

" _Yes, I see what you mean,"_ Ruler began. _"Do you think that our belief is the trigger for your Semblance, or perhaps the feeling of being believed in that us having faith in you produces?"_

" **It would fit, wouldn't it?"** Avenger enquired, as if thinking to herself. **"Faith and belief were a core part of our legend. It was faith that led us to the battlefield and eventually to the Throne. Some even went so far as to say that humility, chastity, and faith were all the Maid was. Who knows what we would have been without our belief in God?"**

The last part was delivered with a hint of amusement as if she was holding back laughter at something that only she found funny, but I shook my head in disagreement.

'I don't think that you two believing in me is it, not exactly,' I corrected while I tried to get my thoughts in order. 'I…I had been trying to become a hunter-trying to get myself to the point where I _could_ become a hunter for a long time before I met you two, years even, and, although I kept at it, I eventually stopped believing it was possible. I would have continued, of course, doing everything in my power to make my dream a reality but never actually having any real hope that it would happen. I still tried my best, worked as hard as I could for hours every day, but I wasn't anything like Jasper, Emerald, Whitney, and Layla were when they were my age.'

I began to feel a little saddened at the memory of my sisters but this wasn't the time for that. I forcefully shook it off and forged on.

'In the beginning, after their deaths, it was different. I believed that my efforts would get me to Beacon. I had faith in myself, and that was something I lost when nothing I did got me any closer to my goals.'

I closed my eyes and thought of how I had been then, trying so hard while fully confident that everything would work out in the end. That confidence that I had forgotten with time, I tried to grasp hold of it once again.

'This isn't some dream I'll wake up from. You believed in me last night. When you did, I thought to myself that if you believed in me-if even you believed in me…' I hesitated for a moment. I could feel something, a thrumming in the center of my mind that hadn't been there before, an expectant energy that was waiting, _wanting,_ to be released. 'Then there is no reason in all of Remnant-' My eyes snapped open and the feeling I had felt twice before rushed forth. 'That _I_ can't believe in _myself!_ '

My Aura flowed through me and my soul illuminated our surroundings in a white light. A bright smile found its way onto my lips at the sight of my success.

'It wasn't that you had faith in me,' I said to the two heroes in my head that had gone silent. 'It's that you gave me the courage to have faith in myself.'

* * *

 **Ending Notes:**

I feel like that last bit could use some explaining as to why, with belief in oneself as the trigger, Jaune's Semblance wouldn't have already been discovered in canon and why we've only seen it manifest itself on one occasion in the show: I think that instance was perhaps the proudest moment Jaune has had on screen.

Throughout all of RWBY proper, Jaune, in his mind at least, has had nothing to take personal pride in. He had to cheat his way into Beacon where everyone else got in legitimately, his weapons were simple "hand-me-downs" where everyone else's were complex, high quality, and custom made, he had no combat experience and was constantly surrounded by people capable of superhuman feats, and, to top it all off, he was blackmailed by Cardin to do CRDL's grunt work the one time he revealed his secret.

Then, when he was exhausted from having to gather Rapier Wasps, and get sap for four other people while having an allergic reaction, he was told to douse his partner in sap to cause the wasps to attack her. If he didn't, he believed he would be sent home in disgrace and that his dream of becoming a huntsman would be lost forever.

Instead, he doused his tormentor in the sap, refused to betray his teammates, and finally told Cardin off. He was exhausted, beaten, and nearly sick when his Semblance activated in a flash of light, but he didn't betray himself or his friends, and I think that was the first time in-series that Jaune held a good amount of positive belief in himself.

In volume two, he's training under Pyrrha to improve himself, but I imagine he never felt too self-assured from repeatedly being beaten while sparring; he was immediately trounced the one time we saw him display any confidence during practice. In volume three, his description given by Nora while highlighting each of JNPR's members' strong suits is "Jaune!", the group exercises he had discussed with his team were entirely forgotten by them (on international television, no less), and he was pretty much emotionally destroyed due to the finale, something he is obviously still dealing with in the following volume(s).

Here, Jaune isn't a fake surrounded by superhumans, nor has he gone through canon's trauma conga line, and he is given a lot of moral support, so his Semblance is discovered much more easily. Hooray for moral support!

Don't forget to fav, follow, and review. Feedback is welcome, and I definitely need it.


	6. Hero V

**Author's Note:** Wow, I am quite happy with all the positive reviews last chapter. I wasn't really sure how the trigger of Jaune's Semblance would go over, but it seems everyone liked it.

* * *

 **Resonance**

"Hold it steady if you can."

I lifted my head slightly to see Shirou approaching from the opposite side of the clearing while still keeping most of my attention on my hands. I nodded and put all my focus into maintaining the light by holding onto the feeling, _the faith_ , I had in myself. It wasn't easy, focusing on just the one thing when there were so many other emotions I was feeling: caution, curiosity, and exhilaration foremost among them.

I had done it. _I had done it!_ I mean, I wasn't sure what _it_ was besides the ability to maybe save on flashlights and never run into furniture in the dark, but still!

The light wavered for a moment at my stray thoughts before I steadied it again and tried to keep my joy in check. Even with it curbed, my smile still refused to be kept down as Shirou arrived and began to examine my hands.

"… _Good work, Jaune. Self-doubt isn't an easy foe to best, and an even more difficult one to continually triumph over, but we'll be here if you ever need help in your fight against it,"_ Ruler assured.

" **Shirou made it sound like awakening your Semblance was a rather arduous task, so I suppose this is worthy of some congratulations. Don't believe for one second that you can just rest on your laurels, though! I'm expecting you to advance at least this quickly in everything else. Such is only fitting for someone I have decided to help,"** Avenger remarked in an aggressive tone, one I still found to be reassuring.

The smile on my face only grew at their words before Shirou began to examine my Semblance in earnest.

"Inform me if you feel anything out of the ordinary," he spoke while reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a small stone that he then released above my hands. It gently fell through the air before hitting my palm. Nothing; it rested easily on my hand and the expectation of something happening made the light waver again before I once more stabilized it. Shirou squatted down and scooped up a handful of dirt before repeating the process. I didn't gain anything out of the test besides dusty fingers, but he looked curious. He held out his hand and a copy of my dagger appeared in it.

"Would you tell me if this feel in any way different to you than it normally does?" he asked while holding it out to me by the flat of the blade. I nodded, and the pebble and dust fell to the ground as I turned my hand over and took the knife from him. I very gently tossed it into the air and it completed two rotations before I caught it by the handle again.

I had seen Jasper doing something similar once, throwing the weapon up, catching the handle, and then launching the blade across our yard and up to its hilt in a tree twenty meters away. She had made it look so cool then, so effortless, to the point that I had wanted to do the same once she gave me her dagger. My first attempt to throw it into a tree ended with the blade bouncing off the bark, so I had instead focused on the twirling part in my room for a few hours with the blade still sheathed. After a couple days, I could toss and catch it almost instinctively. If I wanted to, I might be able to replicate her throwing feat with a bit of practice now that I had Aura, but I already had the bow for fighting at range.

I was still mostly concentrating on my Semblance but the _feel_ of the knife was something I was very familiar with and it was definitely off.

"It feels…lighter. _Much_ lighter. It's almost like it weighs nothing at all."

"That may just be because you have Aura now. A sudden increase in strength could certainly make these things hard to discern," Shirou pondered while looking at the blade. "On the other hand, it could very well be Semblance related. Increased strength, gravity alteration, or matter manipulation could all be reasons for the discrepancy, along with any number of other things. We can likely determine whether the change is due to Aura or Semblance if we use a heavier object, and we could test strength vs. gravity vs. matter modification using a larger object with more force behind it…"

The copy of the dagger disappeared and I looked from where it had been twirling in the air to Shirou to see him with a large sword in his hand. No, sword wasn't the right word for it. LARGE wasn't even the right word for it. It was bigger than a personal weapon had any right to be, at least the same size of its wielder even, and was made entirely out of faded green rock save for its single honed edge. If a club, an axe, a sword, and a boulder had a child, that child would still feel inadequate at the sight of this monstrosity.

Shirou stepped back several feet while I was gawking at the absurd existence, gripped the thing's handle with both hands, and demanded the impossible with a small smirk on his face.

"Catch."

I had a whole half-second to process that ridiculous statement before he lopped the one-ton weapon at me. With great dignity, I used what little time I had left in the world to let out a very manly shriek, stagger half a step back, and desperately raise my hands to try to fend off my oncoming demise.

It was enough.

The moment the weapon hit my palm, there was a surge of confusing sensations and a vague feeling as if my body had both breathed in and out at the same time. The light at the point where stone met skin suddenly grew a dozen times brighter, so much so that I instinctively closed my eyes right before I was launched back. That, combined with everything else, finally robbed me of my concentration as I felt my Semblance fade.

I opened my eyes and was slightly surprised that I wasn't seeing spots. I seemed to have somehow impacted a tree, which I was now leaning against, and I noticed that Shirou both looked a little bemused and was several feet to the right of where I had last seen him. I realized why he had moved once I looked towards his original position and the amazement of me not being crushed was quickly overshadowed.

The tremendous mass of the _thing_ he had thrown at me had lodged the weapon over a foot into the earth. It stood there, partially planted, for a few moments more before it slowly fell back, uprooting grass and displacing dirt as it did so. It hit the ground with a solid _wumph_ withdust and leaves flying away from the impact.

" _ **Huh."**_

My throat was dry as I looked from what was essentially a handheld boulder to the man who had tossed said boulder. I swallowed, met his eyes, and articulated my thoughts.

"What-…Ho-…Did I do that?" I gestured in the sword's general direction while picking myself up off the ground and looking to Shirou, hoping he had a better idea of what had just happened than I did. He gave a small sound of amusement and a nod as an answer. I looked at the weapon laying across from me. It was far too large for me to block, too large for me to lift on my own even, but I had somehow forced it away without even trying to.

"Am I correct in assuming that you don't fully understand what just happened?" he asked in response to my previous sputtering.

"I…might need a _little_ help putting the pieces together," I admitted while scratching the back of my head. "Did I block it, making it bounce back, or maybe I…reflected it?" I finished in a questioning tone while looking with a raised brow from the sword to Shirou, but he just shook his head and the stone weapon dissolved into light.

"No, I don't think either of those is it. Not truly. While the weapon _was_ deflected, it went back farther than it would have if it had just hit an immovable object. While its force was similar both before and after making contact with you, they weren't the same and its momentum wasn't completely reversed either; it would have landed farther away had it followed its previous arc…"

"Of course. Starting with the super obvious stuff, I see," I commented, having seen none of that before he pointed it out. Now that I thought about it though, there was one thing that I should have found a little concerning.

"You threw a giant stone sword at me." I wasn't accusing him, although maybe I should have been. I didn't really feel mad, I just felt that maybe I _should_ have, like any normal person would have been angry or scared after something like that. As I felt neither, it was only an observation for him to elaborate on.

Shirou nodded.

"Going off of your Aura reserves from yesterday, I knew the sword wouldn't crush you, even if your Semblance hadn't stopped it. Had something gone wrong, I would have dispelled the weapon and done everything in my power to ensure your safety. It was just a method to test your reactions like I did earlier with the spear."

"You performed quite well," he congratulated while gesturing to the gouge in the earth my Semblance had created. "Managing to keep hold of your Semblance long enough for us to actually see its effects likely wasn't an easy feat considering this was your first conscious use of it. We'll have to see how it reacts with La Pucelle later, but I suppose we should stick to discovering the basics of you Semblance now and working out the finer details after you have mastered the fundamentals. Speaking of your sword, would you bring it forth?"

I nodded along easily enough, having already had an inkling of his reasons from our earlier interactions. Now that I thought about it, maybe having a mindset a bit different from the norm was a facet common in all hunters. Most stuff that would be lethal to anyone else would pose no threat at all to a trained huntsman. I guess there wasn't any point in getting caught up in what normal people considered life-threatening incidents when such things were, to me, mostly harmless.

I pushed such thoughts aside and shifted my sword into reality.

"Looks good," he said with a single glance. "I was worried that La Pucelle may have been fusing with your own soul or that the use of your Semblance may have altered it in some manner, but its form and spirit are as sublime as ever."

" **Tch. Sublime, he says. I knew Emiya would try to make a move on me someday. He has always had a love of swords, him falling for my charms and attempting to ensnare me has always been an inevitability,"** Avenger quipped in a resigned tone as if such an outcome were predestined.

" _Oh, whatever shall we do? Two helpless maidens-"_ **"Witch!"** _"-alone with no one to protect us from his womanizing ways?"_ Ruler replied and I was taken aback by her dramatically helpless tone, even though I could hear the smile in her voice.

'Um, uh…clearly, I must save thee from yon scoundrel's perverse gaze!' I mentally responded as I dispelled La Pucelle, a little confused at their byplay and more than a little flustered at taking part in it myself. I heard chuckling in my head as the blade vanished, but it seemed good natured.

Shirou wore a knowing grin and I suspected he had gathered at least part of the conversation from my embarrassed expression alone. I felt my cheeks heat as I averted my eyes and tried to bring us back on topic.

"So, do you know exactly what it is that my Semblance does?"

Shirou allowed the redirection to go unchallenged as he shook his head.

"No, but I do have some ideas for what it could be and we might even be able to verify with a few more tests. Would you use it again?"

I nodded, closed my eyes and thought of how great everything had been going lately while remembering how it felt to shape the light of my soul. In less than half a minute, my hands were once more encased in light.

"…That won't do," Shirou concluded after staring at my hands for a moment. "That took far too long to bring forth. If you want to use your Semblance in battle, summoning it will have to be the work of an instant. The Grimm won't be so generous as to wait for you to enter a proper mindset."

"Another thing to work on?" I guessed with a half-hearted smile while thinking of how far I still had to go in both sword and archery practice. So many things I had to improve… So many things I _would_ improve.

"Of course. It doesn't matter what your Semblance does if you never have the time to utilize it. Even the world's sharpest sword is worthless if it cannot be drawn from its sheathe," he said in a knowing manner before his expression turned thoughtful. "Perhaps we're getting ahead of ourselves with this testing. We should prioritize speed and accessibility first. I want you to release your Semblance and then summon it again, repeating this process until it is both instantaneous and can be performed either with a single thought or solely on instinct."

"Are you sure? I mean, that sounds like something I could do on my own in my room," I voiced while allowing the light to fade, feeling a little disappointed since I had been looking forward to finding out more about my Semblance. "You're certain I should spend our training sessions on something I can do by myself?"

"It may not seem especially productive," he conceded, "but I think it's the better option. We've already seen your Semblance's effects once, so we have an idea of how we can expect it to behave in the future. Focusing on gaining finer control of it will likely yield the greatest long-term results. Since you shouldn't need any supervision for this stage, I have a few things I can work on while…"

The mage trailed off as he turned his head in the general direction of Anthem proper and considered something before giving a small hum.

"It seems someone is headed this way. Is this a frequently used trail?" Shirou asked while turning his eyes to me.

"No," I shook my head, a little perplexed, before turning in the direction Shirou had indicated to try and spot who was coming. Whoever it was, they were still too far away for me to even hear, much less see. "The only place anyone visits this far out would be my house, but there's a more direct route East of here. That one's better suited for vehicles and it's more well known, so everyone takes it regardless of whether they're walking or driving."

"Well, whoever it is," Shirou continued, taking the intrusion in stride, "I suppose I should leave before they arrive. If it's convenient, we'll meet here again in the morning and you can show me how far you've advanced. If meeting proves inconvenient, then it shouldn't change anything since you don't need my input for this. Practice what we talked about in your spare time when you're sure you're alone until you reach an acceptable level of competency in using your ability. Ruler and Avenger will certainly help in that regard. Understand?"

I nodded and Shirou returned the gesture. He walked over to the ground, smoothed over the hole I had gouged into it earlier, and paused before turning and tossing a coin to me. I raised my hand to catch it but it bounced off my palm and I scrambled to grab it before managing to pin it in the crease of my elbow.

"Should you need my help for anything, just say 'Clocktower' while holding that in your hand and I'll come as quickly as I can."

His piece said, Shirou turned and left in the direction of the village's wall. I watched him go for a few moments before placing the blank coin he had handed me inside my wallet and heading towards one of the nearby trees to begin my old exercise routine.

" **Why are you staying here instead of just heading home and practicing with your Semblance? Your physique is one of your only aspects that doesn't need significant improvement."**

" _There is someone coming this way, remember?"_ Ruler provided helpfully _. "It might be suspicious if said person were familiar with Jaune's routine and found him skipping on it now."_

'Right. Also, I can just start the actual practice after whoever is coming leaves. While I could just head home and train, I figure it will be easier to keep it a secret if I do so away from the house filled with people.'

I didn't hear a reply so I nodded to my own reasoning as I began a series of stretches. My exercise regime was a familiar thing, something I had been doing for literally years. Every action was so ingrained into my body that each motion was automatic. It left me free to think about everything that had happened recently which led to a small but sudden realization.

I was happy.

I was really, _really_ happy. I mean, it wasn't an overwhelming thing that eclipsed everything else; I could put it aside when there was a task at hand. When I was sparring with Shirou I had to give him every bit of my attention if I didn't want a severe trouncing and I had to pour all my heart, mind, and soul into archery practice if I were to truly master the bow. Outside of that, though, when there wasn't something I needed to give my everything to, it felt like I was holding a little spark of laughter close to my chest and I didn't want it to go out.

My successes with my Semblance and training only enhanced that feeling. I wasn't a natural born genius like Shirou, but even he said I had some talent with the bow. My soul wasn't a sword nor did it contain them but both Ruler and Avenger agreed that I was picking up swordplay fast.

I knew that being a fast learner was actually a necessity since I would be competing against others with years more experience than me. I also knew that there would be plenty of people better than me once I got to Beacon and that I still had so much farther to go. _I knew that._

But for all that I knew the disadvantages of the situation I was in, I couldn't bring myself to care about them. That wasn't to say that I didn't plan to work as hard as I had before, I did. It was just that the possibility of me not getting into Beacon now seemed almost farfetched.

Even yesterday, my goals hadn't felt entirely achievable and not because of a lack of resources, I was sure that I now had the best teachers and equipment in the world, but rather because _I_ was the one trying to achieve them. Jaune, the person who had worked for years without getting even close to how strong his sisters had been. Jaune, the one who had been stupid enough to think that training alone would let him reach their level. Jaune, who knew as little about fighting Grimm as he did about fighting in general.

At first glance, my Semblance seemed a bit mocking. What else could you call something that made you put your faith in a klutz, a weakling, and a failure?

But…that wasn't all I was. Not anymore. I was also Jaune, the chosen wielder of a sword of legend. Jaune, the student of a hero of myth. Jaune, the fast learner, the one who had talent for the bow, the person who awoke their Semblance within a single day of awakening their Aura.

When thought of in that light, my soul wasn't mocking me at all; it was encouraging me. It was telling me that I was someone _worth_ believing in and that, as long as I did so, it would continue to support me.

I had been frozen for a long time, and when I finally started to move I had had help at every step I had taken so far, but that had accelerated my progress from a crawl to a dead sprint. I felt my Aura, the light of my soul, and it filled me with a sense of validation. My inability to grow hadn't been due to a lack of talent or effort on my part. All I had needed was a little push.

The sound of slowly approaching footsteps brought me out of my thoughts. There was a sort of soft clap after each step that I found a bit distracting. Whoever was coming was either wearing sandals or lightly clapping each time they moved their feet. Probably the former.

I was surprised when the source of the sound came into view. Not because they were clapping after each step, they _were_ wearing sandals, but that the person coming into view was my own sister.

"Coral?"

Her head turned towards me at the sound of my voice and she nodded after a moment before coming closer.

"Hey," she greeted while turning her head every which way to examine all our surroundings.

"What are you doing here?" I continued, trying to keep my voice even. Her looking around so intently was making me a little nervous even though I had no reason to be. Shirou had fixed any damage we may have dealt to the area after each of our meetings and there was nothing here to hint at what was really going on. "You don't normally take this path back home. No one does. In fact, I don't think you've come this way in…Have you _ever_ taken this route?"

"Nah, I just thought it was high time for me to see for myself where my _big brother_ goes every day to train to be a big, strong hunter," she said with a tone that a less experienced person may have thought was sincere. "Really, seeing as you don't have anyone else to talk to about it with, shouldn't you be grateful your little sis is taking an interest in your hobbies?"

Her question was accompanied by a grin that was, much like her, both audacious and challenging. At the sight of it, I closed my eyes and tried to formulate a response. I couldn't just ask her why she was here now of all times, when I was finally improving myself. It _could_ just be coincidence that she was here, like she had said, but the timing was suspicious. Maybe I could get back to practicing after she left. It was probably best to just play along.

"There isn't really much to show you," I gave in lieu of an answer while gesturing around us. "Here's the branch I use for pullups and there are some heavy rocks next to the tree on your left that I sometimes use." I gestured to each feature as I spoke and tried to give her an innocent, disarming smile and a shrug. "Even though you came all the way out here, there really isn't much to see. Sorry."

"You aren't going to show me your routine?" she asked, entirely undeterred, and I knew any chance of her leaving without me were slim. Her eyes were those of a predator seeking to embarrass or find fault with her prey. Either outcome would see her satisfied.

"I…would rather not. I mean, uh, exercising while someone else is watching you just feels a little awkward, you know?" I admitted.

"Even when it's just your sister?"

"Especially then. Besides, I've already done part of it, so how about I just walk you home? Your big, strong, soon-to-be-hunter brother will make sure no Grimm get us on the way!" I gave a self-deprecating chuckle to deflect her while I turned to grab my backpack.

"Ha-ha. Like such a thing would ever happen with mom and dad guarding Anthem," she responded while I picked up my bag and strapped it over my back, silently agreeing with her but thankful she wasn't pushing the topic. It wasn't necessary for me to train with my Semblance here, I would just do so in my room later. The only advantage doing so here _had_ had was that there wasn't anyone around to see me.

When I turned back to Coral she was wearing the same suspicious look she had yesterday in the kitchen, but it was gone in an instant and I wondered if I had just imagined it. I then realized that I didn't have to wonder at all.

'Did she just-?'

" _Momentarily look at us in a suspicious and interrogating manner? Yes."_

'Gotcha.'

I began to walk in the direction of the house and Coral did the same as we both took a few steps before simultaneously stopping and turning to look behind us.

I had trained here for years without anyone else ever interrupting me, so why did I hear _another_ set of footprints approaching?

Coral shot me a look.

"I thought you said no one ever took this route?"

"They don't!" I responded, a little unsettled at two people coming out here on the same day. My sister seemed to find my shocked response as proof of something else judging by the scandalized look she was giving me as she recoiled before leaning in close and whispering furiously.

"Are you using this as a secret meeting place to-to…to hook up with _a girl?!"_

"No!" I whispered back, blushing at such an accusation coming from my own sibling. "I-I don't have a girlfriend and I don't know who's coming!"

" **Don't worry, Jaune, that won't be an issue for too much longer."**

'Well, yeah, we're about to find out who's coming since they'll be entering into view,' I replied, wondering why Avenger was stating the obvious.

"… **Yes."**

I paused for a moment before widening my feet a little while remembering what Shirou had said about being mindful of my base in a fight. I felt a little silly considering that whoever was coming probably wasn't going to attack us or anything, but this situation was suspicious and it couldn't hurt to be careful. I only realized I wasn't being careful enough when the newest intruder entered into view.

I think I had told Shirou and Jeanne that my parents were the only hunters in Anthem, which was true, but they weren't the only ones in town that had had run-ins with Grimm. The town's pilot had told me some stories about his encounters with both Griffins and Nevermore, and I once heard that the mother of the baker who worked at Petite Patisserie had clashed against quite a few hordes during the Faunus War, but that she didn't like talking about it.

The only _other_ person in town that I knew of to have fought Grimm at some point was an old man who claimed to have been a vagabond that had spent most of his life travelling from kingdom to kingdom and exploring the world. He was so old, late eighties to early nineties, that anyone who could have confirmed his stories was already deceased.

I talked to him once to see if he had any advice on killing Grimm and during said talk he claimed to have fought in the Great War. When I pointed out that he would have had to have been a child for that to be true, he said that he had used his jacks as caltrops and his jump rope as a garrote.

I had tried to steer clear of him afterwards.

My failure to do so now was the reason for my current annoyance and the sweat on the back of my neck.

Coral looked at the old drifter, looked to me, and then repeated the process a few more times before elbowing my side with a snort.

"I wish you two a lifetime of happiness and will now give you some privacy." She then turned, gave me a once-over, and began running towards our house, leaving me alone with him.

Damn it, Coral.

"JAUNE!" I winced a little at the old man's voice. He always spoke in a loud manner and claimed it was because he had trouble hearing. I, however, had seen the guy pin a buzzing fly to a wall with a fork from halfway across a room without looking. He just shouted for kicks.

I nodded to him as greeting.

"DID YOU SEE SOME SPACE COMET FALL FROM THE SKY YESTERDAY?! YOUR PARENTS COULDN'T FIND IT." His head was pivoting every which way as he spoke as if it might be hiding behind one of the trees and he would catch it peeking.

I shook my head.

"AH WELL, MIGHT AS WELL WAIT HERE TO SEE IF IT SHOWS UP AGAIN. AFTER ALL, A METEOR _ALWAYS_ RETURNS TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME!" He nodded at his own twisted logic before walking just a little bit off the beaten path and quickly setting up what I thought looked like a trapping net before covering it with leaves. He suspended a water bottle from a nearby branch over the very middle of the setup and punctured a single hole into it, allowing its contents to slowly drip out. He looked to my slightly slack jawed expression and seemed to take it as a compliment as he nodded sagely to me. "I THINK IT'S QUITE CLEVER TOO! YOU NEVER HEAR MUCH ABOUT WHAT METEORS DO IN THEIR DOWNTIME, BUT I FIGURE THIS OUGHT'A ENTICE IT WELL ENOUGH!"

'What…Why…Nope.' I felt my left eye twitch as I opened my mouth for a moment, tempted to correct or question him, but closed it right afterwards. That would accomplish nothing but getting me sucked into his argument. His logic was an insidious thing, and once you were pulled in, the only way out was through an investment of time and sanity that would leave you feeling both robbed and more confused than when you started. I turned in the direction of my house and began to run to catch up with my sister.

"Bye, Hendrickson!" I shouted to him over my shoulder.

"WHAT?!"

I kept running.

* * *

'So,' I thought once I was back in my room with the door locked and the blinds closed, 'I'll start now unless you two have any more ideas for how I should go about this?'

" _This might not help immediately but there is something I think you could benefit from in the long-term."_

'Go on.'

" _Whenever you're sitting down, sit up straight. Whenever you're standing up, stand up straight. Don't slouch but rather keep your shoulders up."_

'So, have good posture?'

" _Essentially."_

'But…how does that help?'

" _I think there's a psychological term that this idea is loosely based on-"_

" **Cognitive-behavioral Therapy."**

" _Yes, that. What I'm trying to say is that not only does how you think affect how you feel which affects how you act but the reverse is also true. By acting like you believe in yourself you'll be more inclined to actually do so."_ She explained helpfully. _"It's also something that might help when the time comes for you to deal with Grimm. Care to take a guess as to why?"_

'Sure. You're saying that I need to feel positive when facing Grimm. I mean, not _happy_ or anything like that, but determined, and if I freak out, then that's only going to draw more of them.' It was pretty simple logic, really, even if it was easier said than done; panic equals more Grimm, so don't panic.

" _That's part of it, but there are several more facets to it…Tell me, who would you say is the most valuable person in a group of strong fighters?"_

'Whoever's the strongest.'

" _Looks like he does take after you, Alter."_ I heard a low growl in response, but Ruler ignored it. _"While the strength of each individual is something to consider, the true strength of a unit is its ability to fight as a whole. With that in mind, who would you say is the most important to the success of such a group?"_

'Then that would be the group's leader or whoever their strategist is, right?'

" _Correct, and how do you think a team will react if their leader is panicking?"_

'They'd probably start…Wait. What makes you think I would be a team leader?' I asked, seeing where her questions were headed. 'I mean, yeah, I've gotten a lot better since meeting you two and I'm sure I'll make a lot of advancement still, but what makes you think I'm cut out for something like that?'

Ruler gave a small, good natured laugh at my question as if such a thing were obvious and I was just being modest.

" _I have a feeling you're more suited for the position of leader than you know,"_ she said in an almost amused tone but with a certainty that I didn't think I could question. _"So, how do you think a team would react if their leader were to panic?"_

'They'd probably panic too.'

" _Indeed. Now, can you think of any other ways having a sure and confident appearance may benefit a hunter?"_

'…What if they came across a town that was being attacked, or were already at a town?' I questioned, building off Ruler's original point.

" _What do you mean?"_ She sounded pleased at my question and where it would lead.

'Well, I told you how Grimm are attracted to negativity, right? So, the more negativity a group is experiencing, the more Grimm will be attracted to said group, the more negativity the group will produce, and so on. It's a, uh, positive feedback loop! Normally, this would go on until either the people or all the Grimm in the vicinity are killed, but a hunter could change that and not just by killing Grimm.'

" _How so?"_

'By inspiring the people. Hunters are who everyone would look to in a time of crisis and if they're panicking then everyone else will too, but if they're calm then others will think that they must have a reason to be.' My mental voice had begun as a whisper but was growing louder with my excitement. I wondered how I hadn't realized this before, it seemed so obvious now that I thought about it. 'If the people believe everything is under control, that there is still hope or even nothing to fear at all, then that means that they'll be less afraid, less anxious, and less desperate, which means fewer Grimm to fight. Hunters could even stop Grimm from coming at all by just assuring people that they're safe through their presence.' I couldn't hold back the excitement in my voice as I finished. 'It's sort of like believing the thing makes it so!'

" **Yes. From how you've described this world, belief has a power all its own."** Avenger's response startled me as she had remained silent throughout almost the whole conversation. Her tone was a mix of both slight approval and inevitability. **"Now, what happens when you apply that notion to an entire world, or even just a Kingdom?"**

'Huh?'

" **People believing they're safe actually makes them safer. The kingdoms must have already realized this, so how do you think they would apply it?"**

'They'd…' I paused to give it some thought. If everyone believing they were safe made them objectively safer than the best thing to do would be to make sure everyone always felt secure even if…especially if that security was a lie, albeit one that became the truth once people accepted it as such. 'They'd make sure everyone knew they were safe regardless of whether or not it was true, but the kingdoms _are_ safe.' I pointed out, not sure where she was going with this.

" **Are they?"** Avenger asked in a nearly conversational tone. **"How strong is your world, really? What would it take to trigger global societal collapse?"** Her voice became colder and she delivered her final line with scorn and the decisiveness of a blade. **"What would happen if one of the kingdoms fell?"**

My train of thought stalled at such a question. The kingdoms couldn't fall. They just _couldn't_. It was true that villages would be wiped out every so often, but kingdoms weren't like that. Everyone knew that.

" **It's hard to think of such a thing, isn't it?"** Avenger enquired in a manner that sounded almost consoling. **"In a way, that shows how effective the kingdoms' teachings are. The highest populations of people reside in them so surely, they must house the greatest amount of negativity, yes? So how could they stand when the less populated villages fall? They stand solely because everyone believes that the kingdoms are safe while the areas outside of them are not."**

'That can't be right. Each of the kingdoms has existed for _hundreds and hundreds of years._ I mean, yeah, it's true that the kingdom of Mantle no longer exists, but that's just because it changed its name to Atlas as a symbolic thing. The other three kingdoms have gone through similar changes in their histories while also not collapsing! Now, there are, like, airships and firearms to combat flying Grimm along with mass communication and combat schools in each of the four kingdoms to ensure that they each have a constant supply of protectors! How could one fall when all four kingdoms have so many more advantages now than when they were founded?'

" **Because they now have a disadvantage that I'm betting they didn't have when they were created: population,"** she said with certainty. **"They each likely had a much smaller population when they were first built, one that, when compared to their modern-day counterparts, may have produced more negativity per individual but less as a whole. They probably felt safer once the kingdoms had become well-established, which would serve as plenty of motivation for them to work on growing the population. Each of them has aged from a quick and spry calf to a fattened cow, ready for slaughter. Shirou said it himself, remember? The kingdoms have already reached the limit of how many people they can sustain and are having to create distant settlements to deport their excess civilians to. If one of the kingdoms were to experience a large enough panic, they could be overrun. That mass communication you mentioned earlier? It would only drive the rest of them into a more terrified state making them all more vulnerable. A little mayhem is all it would take for society to be pushed to the brink. Also, how do you know kingdoms have not already been destroyed?"**

'Well, I think we would have heard about one of them falling?'

" **Not like that. I'm referring to the past. How do you know the kingdoms are as old as they say they are, or that there weren't others whose destruction may have been covered up? History is written by the survivors, after all. They could just all agree to alter their textbooks, tacking on a few centuries here and removing a few references there, to give people a sense that the places they call home are sturdier than they truly are."**

'I…I guess I don't know. Not for sure, but if we ever go to a museum, then I could ask Shirou to read the histories of some of their displays to verify their stories,' I replied after a moment's thought. This all felt deeper than I was used to, questions about the very safety of everything and the accuracy of what I had been taught. It was daunting, to say the least, but…I didn't think it was something that I could allow myself to turn away from. In a way, this was what being a huntsman was, facing the things that the rest of the world couldn't. 'Also, while I don't think you're entirely wrong, I don't think things are as bad as you think they are. The kingdoms couldn't exist if they were that fragile.'

" **I am simply saying that it is the belief that they are not fragile that is keeping the kingdoms from** _ **being**_ **fragile."** I heard a sigh before she continued with a note of grim resignation. **"I'm not saying the kingdoms are going to fall soon, or even in your lifetime. I'm saying that they continue to exist on the trust of the people, and that can be a** _ **very**_ **fickle thing."**

"… _I think we've gotten a little off topic, Avenger. The state of the world's governments is important, but not something that has to be immediately addressed. Jaune, do you remember why it's important to at least project surety in yourself?"_

'Yeah,' I replied while thinking over what they had said. 'How I act affects how I feel and think, the appearance of a leader impacts the mood of their followers, and a huntsman's image influences the emotions of those he is protecting.'

" _Good,"_ she acknowledged before her voice became expectant. _"Ready to master your Semblance?"_

I smiled at her question, rolled my shoulders, got in a ready stance, closed my eyes-

" **Stop."** I immediately froze at Avenger's forceful tone. **"Do you intend to close your eyes on the battlefield?"** I shook my head. **"Then don't do so while training off the battlefield."**

" _The habits you form now will stay with you, so you have to make sure they are ones you want to keep._ _Shutting out the world may make it easier to focus on yourself but that still means losing track of your surroundings, so make sure to keep your eyes open during this exercise,"_ Ruler gently reprimanded. _"Don't feel discouraged, this is why we're practicing now, to prepare you for what's to come. Ready to try again?"_

I nodded and, with my eyes open this time, called forth my Semblance, once more encasing my hands in light.

" **Twenty seconds."**

" _Well done, better than last time even. Perhaps you were just a bit shaken by everything that had happened then."_

I smiled and let the light fade. Once it had, I called it to me again and it was there.

" _Better still! This is progressing more quickly than I expected."_

" **Regardless, it needs to be about one hundred times faster. Anything more than a fraction of a second is unacceptable for combat, and just because you can summon it swiftly** _ **now**_ **doesn't mean a thing. The real test will come when you have to do so with a foe bearing down on you in the heat of battle where even the slightest hesitation could mean the difference between life and death."**

" _Yes, but practice in the present is what prepares one for the future. When the time comes, he'll be ready. I'm sure of it."_

I nodded my head, hoping Ruler's faith wasn't misplaced, and continued the exercise. I did so until my parents called me down for dinner, where I told them an edited version of my day, watched a show with the rest of my family, and then immediately went back to my room to resume my training. I was determined to advance my Semblance as far as I could before I next saw Shirou.

Which, unfortunately, was not the very next morning.

* * *

 **Ending Notes:** To any who didn't get the weird logic, it was a shower.

Minor spoiler: *The subsequent chapter will likely have a one-week timeskip to Jaune and Shirou's next meeting. *

On a separate topic, I think that some of the implications in the underlying mechanics of RWBY aren't really explored in-series as much as they could be, Grimm being attracted to negativity being one of said mechanics. I'm not saying that I am going to go super in-depth on it or anything, just that that tendency will be used. Avenger isn't necessarily correct in all her speculation, but she isn't completely incorrect either.

Saw Volume 5. While it did have some high points, I'm hoping that they make a lot of improvements before Volume 6. I really do like Jaune's canon Semblance as it has a good deal of potential that I hope they take the time to fully explore. Even so, that isn't his Semblance here. Also, Aura is still passive in this story.

Don't forget to fav, follow, and review. Feedback is welcome, and I definitely need it.


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